‘Our species will disappear’: Earth enters new extinction phase

Science

‘Our species will disappear’: Earth enters new extinction phase

Humans have already triggered the start of Earth’s sixth mass extinction, thereby threatening their own future as a species, a hard-hitting new study has claimed. The window of opportunity to prevent the worst diversity disaster since dinosaurs were swept from the planet 65 million years ago is “rapidly closing,” warn the authors. In the last century vertebrates have been disappearing at a rate 114 times higher than would normally be expected without the destructive influence of humans, according to the scientists, who insist their analysis is “extremely conservative.”

If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on.
Dr. Gerardo Ceballos

If the current pace of extinction is allowed to continue, species loss will have a significant effect on human populations in as little as three generations, it is claimed. Once the damage is done, it could take millions of years for nature to recover, said the researchers. They pointed out that since 1900, over 400 more vertebrates than expected had vanished. The lost animals included 69 mammal, 80 bird, 24 reptile, 146 amphibian and 158 fish species. Today, the specter of extinction hung over 26 percent of all mammalian species and 41 percent of all amphibians.

There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead. We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on.
Professor Paul Ehrlich