HONGKONG: Humans are causing the sixth mass extinction in the history of the Earth, say biologists from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the University of Florida, and Princeton University.
“Although biologists cannot say precisely how many species there are, or exactly how many have gone extinct in any time interval, we can confidently conclude that modern extinction rates are exceptionally high, that they are increasing, and that they suggest a mass extinction under way — the sixth of its kind in Earth’s 4.5 billion years of history,” the researchers write in the journal Science Advances. “If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on.”
The total number of vertebrate species that went extinct in the last century would have taken about 800 to10,000 years to disappear had natural extinction rates prevailed — making the current rate of mass extinction the most rapid since the one 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs. Known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, scientists believe it was prompted by an asteroid impact near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The four mass extinctions that occurred prior to it were tied to drastic and diverse geological events, such as melting glaciers, global cooling and warming, and volcanic eruption associated with shifts in the tectonic plates.
The researchers say human activities are driving the latest mass extinction event. A ballooning human population, habitat destruction to make way for settlements or agricultural production, climate change, ocean acidification, and soil, water, and air pollution are all wiping species off the face of the Earth.
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