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WWF's Living Planet Report 2016 shows the scale of the challenges we face regarding the future of our planet - and what we can do about it. The Living Planet Index reveals that global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012. But if humans can change the planet so profoundly, then it's also in our power to put things right. This report provides possible solutions - including the fundamental changes required in the global food, energy and finance systems to meet the needs of current and future generations.

Global trade has made it easier to buy things. But our consumption habits often fuel threats to biodiversity - such as deforestation, overhunting and overfishing - thousands of miles away. Now, scientists have mapped how major consuming countries drive threats to endangered species elsewhere. Such maps could be useful for finding the most efficient ways to protect critical areas important for biodiversity, the researchers suggest in a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. For example, the maps show that commodities used in the United States and the European Union exert several threats on marine species in Southeast Asia, mainly due to overfishing, pollution and aquaculture. The U.S. also exerts pressure on hotspots off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and at the mouth of the Orinoco around Trinidad and Tobago. European Union's impacts extend to the islands around Madagascar: Réunion, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The maps also revealed some unexpected linkages. For instance, the impact of U.S. consumption in Brazil appears to be much greater in southern Brazil (in the Brazilian Highlands where agriculture and grazing are extensive) than inside the Amazon basin, which receives a larger chunk of the attention. The U.S. also has high biodiversity footprint in southern Spain and Portugal, due to their impacts on threatened fish and bird species. These countries are rarely perceived as threat hotspots.

Unhappy with how regional authorities have failed to protect fish stocks in the Western Pacific, Palau has launched its own bold initiatives - creating a vast marine sanctuary and conducting an experiment designed to reduce bycatch in its once-thriving tuna fishery.

San Francisco just took a major step to save the environment. The city's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance to ban the sale of polystyrene - more commonly known by its brand-name "styrofoam" - on Tuesday. It's the broadest ban on the product in the country, according to Mother Jones. "The science is clear," London Breed, Board of Supervisors president, said in a statement in April. "This stuff is an environmental and public health pollutant, and we have to reduce its use." Starting January 1, 2017, vendors will no longer be able to sell polystyrene products, from food packaging and coffee cups to packing peanuts and pool toys, according to Science Alert. And starting July 1, styrofoam fish and meat trays in supermarkets will also be banned.

"Just 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally, one third ends up in the natural environment and if current trends continue, by 2050 our oceans could contain more plastics than fish, by weight," says Rob Opsomer, lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's new plastics economy initiative. "We need to fundamentally rethink the way we produce, use and recover plastics, redesign plastic packaging and adopt common standards."

Pacific Northwest shellfish producers are the first harbingers of a trend that may have wide ranging implications for the broader fishing industry: ocean acidification. By proactively seeking out adaptation solutions early on, the Northwest shellfish industry is attempting a self-rescue that may provide important lessons as other commercial species begin feeling the impacts of increasing acidification.

A giant solar receiver in California's agricultural region may offer some hope for farmers who have been denied water in a record-setting drought. Conservation policies to protect endangered fish species have have contributed as well.

For sustainable fishing businesses to succeed and proliferate, a green, ethical approach has to spread throughout the supply chain, writes Monica Jain. "It is also important that businesses that value sustainability demonstrate that they are successfully carving out market share from traditional sources, providing investors with confidence in these businesses' ability to succeed and grow," she writes.

In a bid to appeal to eco-conscious consumers, McDonald's will start selling Rainforest Alliance-certified espresso and Marine Stewardship Council-certified fish sandwiches. "We feel there's a tipping point coming. We see the consumer starting to care. Consumer expectations are rising," explains Bob Langert, vice president of sustainability for McDonald's

The organizing committee for the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics signed an agreement serve only sustainably produced seafood. Seafood offerings will be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

Climate change is already taking a serious toll on the planet, leading to heat waves, water shortages, melting ice caps, dying coral reefs and the extinction or migration of fish stocks, according to a report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Decisions made -- or left unmade -- by policymakers in the immediate future will shape global society for the rest of the century, the panel's report warns. "Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change," said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the panel's chairman

President Barack Obama today announced a major expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, rendering large areas of the central Pacific off-limits to fishing and energy exploration. The move will expand the marine sanctuary to more than 780,000 square miles.

Between 1970 and 2010 populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish around the globe dropped 52 percent, says the 2014 Living Planet Report released today by World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 

Whole Foods is the No. 1 grocer in terms of seafood sustainability this year, according to Greenpeace's 2015 Carting Away the Oceans report. The list honors stores that harvest or raise their fish offerings with minimal environmental harm. Rounding out the top five were Wegmans, Hy-Vee, Safeway and Target. 

Preliminary results of our "upside model" show that, within just 10 years, profits can grow 115 percent to $51 billion USD a year compared to today, if all fisheries worldwide were managed sustainably. Importantly, this economic growth doesn't come at the cost of other goals: both seafood production and fish biomass in the ocean would also increase.

Plastic waste causes $13 billion in annual financial damage to marine ecosystems, though the actual cost of plastic waste to the overall environment may be much higher, according to two reports released at a meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly. One report, the UN Environment Programme Year Book, notes that when plastic material fouls fishing equipment and pollutes beaches it threatens tourism, fisheries and businesses in addition to marine life.

We have put a cost on the environmental impact of plastic through research we did for the Plastic Disclosure Project. We calculate that plastic costs the planet a colossal $75bn costs per year in the consumer goods sector alone, due mainly to the carbon emissions from plastic manufacturing processes. Oceanic pollution accounts for $13bn as a result of impacts such as the harm done to marine wildlife by discarded nylon fishing nets and ingesting microscopic plastic particles.

Nearly all ocean dead zones will increase by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a new Smithsonian-led study. But the work also recommends how to limit risks to coastal communities of fish, crabs and other species no matter how much the water warms.

Along the oceanside bluffs just north of Goleta, one farm is producing 20 to 25 varieties of organic produce using a sustainable farming method that uses as little as 10 percent of the amount of water used in traditional agriculture.