2022 Red List
According to the United Nations (UN), up to one million species are threatened with extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has over 40,000 species classified as threatened in its2022 Red Listand estimates over 26,000 species are threatened with extinction. It also lists over 9,000 species as critically endangered before they are extinct in the wild. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), humans are responsible for 99% of endangered species. As a result, the WWF believes the current extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural rate.