The human population shows no signs of being threatened, though the same can’t be said for our fellow animals. In particular, freshwater fish, which humans have used for food, sport and as pets for millennia, are in the middle of an ecological crisis of our doing.  That’s according to a recent report put together by 16 global conservation organizations, which estimated that roughly one-third of the world’s 18,075 freshwater fish species face possible extinction.

The report, which was published by groups including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Global Wildlife Conservation, argues that climate change, pollution, the introduction of invasive species, the destruction of habitats and overly aggressive draining and damming of the world’s rivers, lakes and wetlands have played a role in the decline of freshwater fish species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that, of the more than 10,000 species whose conservation status has been studied, 30 percent are at risk of going extinct.

The extinction of billions of freshwater fish would have catastrophic consequences on the human world. […]