Millions of animals had to be destroyed in the UK's last foot-and-mouth outbreak, which took place in 2001.

BBC: ?5.6m project seeks new foot-and-mouth vaccine

This figure does not include the animals lost by habitat destruction and pollution, which in Europe alone counts for many millions of animals.

BBC: Animal Underworld

How do you vaccinate millions of wild animals?

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If carbon dioxide levels go up 100 ppm over thousands or millions of years, plants and animals can adapt.

NPR: Experts: CO2 Record Illustrates 'Scary' Trend

If carbon dioxide levels go up 100 parts per million over thousands or millions of years, plants and animals can adapt.

NPR: Greenhouse Gas Milestone; CO2 Levels Set Record

The advent of tractors, for example, freed millions of acres that previously had to be used to support draft animals.

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Opossums are very slow and stupid animals but have survived and thrived for hundreds of millions of years, longer than the majority of macrofaunal species.

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The country's State Forestry Administration estimates that desertification affects 400 million Chinese, many of whom lose the ability to farm their land or graze their animals and join the ranks of the tens of millions of internal environmental refugees, who often migrate to the big cities in search of new homes and jobs.

CNN: Economic miracle, environmental disaster

Plants and animals that have survived and thrived in the brutal conditions of Antarctica for millions of years have had to make plenty of adjustments.

CNN: Ice shelf collapse: What does it mean?