More than one-third of the world’s trees may be facing mass extinction due to deforestation and global heating from human activity. The findings were announced Monday at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, known as COP16, which is underway in Cali, Colombia. This is the first comprehensive assessment on the status of tree species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, which warns that more than 16,000 of the 47,000 tree species analyzed in the report are at risk of going extinct — threatening thousands of other species of plants, animals and fungi that rely on forest ecosystems to survive. IUCN Director General Grethel Aguilar said in a statement, “Trees are the barometer of life. … Can you imagine a planet without trees? We, humans, are capable to reverse this and save these trees that we depend on, so the task that we have is huge.”