We are the first apex species capable of understanding the damage we are causing.. it's a shame so many people don't care.
Study 6th mass extinction already underway -- and we re the causeThe Earth's sixth mass extinction is already underway — and humans are the driving force behind it, according to a new study.
"Recent extinction rates are unprecedented in human history and highly unusual in Earth's history," according to a study published Friday in the journalScience Advances. "Our global society has started to destroy species of other organisms at an accelerating rate, initiating a mass extinction episode unparalleled for 65 million years."
Researchers used "extremely conservative assumptions" to determine extinction rates that prevailed in the past five annihilation events. Still, they found the average rate of vertebrate species lost over the past century was up to 114 times higher than normal.
USA TODAY
13 species we might have to say goodbye to in 2015
For example, about 477 vertebrate species have gone extinct since 1900, according to the study. Based on previous extinctions, only nine species would have been expected to die off in the same time frame had it not been for mankind's involvement.
"The number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken ... between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear," the study reported. "These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already underway."
The previous five mass extinctions happened well before mankind walked the Earth, and are believed to have been mainly caused by natural disasters, such as asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions.
The last mass extinction happened some 65 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs. Overall, each mass extinction event has rid the planet of up to 96% of its species each time.
An elephant splashes at sunset in the waters of the Chobe river in Botswana Chobe National Park, in the northeastern part of the country on March 20, 2015. African elephants could be extinct in the wild within a few decades, experts warn. (Photo: Chris Jek, AFP/Getty Images)
In the past few decades, several animal species have been labeled extinct, including the Chinese paddlefish, Yangtze River dolphin, Pyrenean ibex and western black rhinoceros.