UN biodiversity meet wraps up, report today

Diplomats and scientists from 132 nations wrapped up six days of negotiations in Paris Saturday over the wording of a landmark report on the dire state of Nature and its impact on humanity, a UN official told AFP. The bombshell executive summary of a 1,800-page tome crafted by more than 400 experts -- the first UN global assessment of the natural world in 15 years -- will be unveiled today. The report is likely to reveal that up to one million of Earth’s estimated eight million species face extinction, many within decades. Many scientists have concluded that the planet has already entered a period of so-called “mass extinction,” the first since the demise of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, and only the sixth in half-a-billion years.