Earth’s 6th mass extinction event is accelerating

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Hundreds of unique animals, precious disappeared forever into the last century. This is what predicts a terrible mass extinction is imminent.
Earth’s 6th mass extinction event is accelerating
The researchers said it could take decades for hundreds of species to disappear.

As the stimulating effects on neighboring species become ever more risky, with the instability of the ecosystem and the weakening of the food web, any species, including humans, will be affected. severely affected.

"What we do to cope with the current extinction crisis in the next two decades will determine the fate of millions of species," explains ecologist Gerardo Ceballos from the National University of Mexico.

Five years ago, Ceballos led a study that used estimates to reveal the big difference between the usual extinction rate of extinct species and the death rate we see today.

It has found that the average extinction rate of vertebrates (twice extinct mammals per 10,000 species every 100 years) is much lower than the number of extinctions today, much higher than 100 times in the last century.

The team says there is a mass extinction phenomenon right now because of the immutable evidence that shows the extent of recent extinction, unprecedented itself in human history is very often in Earth history.

"We can confidently conclude that modern extinction rates are extremely high. They are increasing and this is the sixth in Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history," the team reported.

Recently, Ceballos and his collaborators have returned to another study and their new insights are no longer optimistic. This time the researchers say the rate of future extinction may have been underestimated so far. The rate of extinction of the vertebrates we are witnessing will increase sharply in the future.

In the study, the team used data from the IUCN’s International List of Endangered Species and Birds to examine vertebrate populations deemed to be on the brink of extinction. out of geographic range, and currently fewer than 1,000 solitary creatures worldwide. 1.7% of terrestrial vertebrates were as‌sessed, a total of 515 species, consistent with this description.

Adding 39 species with the number from 1,000 to 5,000 individuals, the team said 84% of these animals live in the same area with 515 species on the brink of extinction, indicating that they are likely to be exposed to with similar geographic threats, about things like ecosystems destabilizing due to broken food chains, deforestation, pollution or countless other human pressures.

"Extinct falls" triggered by the loss of several major species in the ecosystem are a well-known phenomenon in ecology, because so many animals are on the brink of extinction. A series of events may occur sooner than we expect, when animal populations are subject to such extreme pressure, they usually do not last long.

"About 94% of the population of 77 species of mammals and birds on the brink were lost in the last century. Suppose all species on the verge had a similar tendency, more than 237,000 of those species. "disappeared since 1900," the team wrote.

If 515 species on the brink only exists for a few more decades, according to estimates, combined with 543 species of vertebrates that have gone extinct since 1900, the extinction rate will be 117 times higher than the baseline rate. , higher than the researchers’ own estimates five years ago, shows just how quickly we underestimated the process.

The researchers said it is not too late to slow this down, if we act to reduce human pressure on the biosphere. This is possible by implementing widespread bans on wildlife trade, slowing deforestation and recognizing all animal populations under 5,000 individuals as critically endangered.

"The conservation of endangered species needs to be raised to a national and global emergency for governments and organizations, equivalent to the climate disruption to which it is concerned," the biologist said. said Paul Ehrlich, a physiologist from Stanford University.

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