The Sixth Extinction: Human Impact on Species Survival
Human activity may be setting the stage for the largest extinction event since the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, according to a new scientific review.
The study, published in Global Change Biology, warns that while today’s loss of species is already extraordinary, it has not yet reached the catastrophic levels of a true “mass extinction.”
According to the research, if biodiversity continues to decline at the current pace, we could soon cross that line.
Jack Hatfield from the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, brings together decades of studies on environmental change, combining data from fossils and living ecosystems.
Human activity may be setting the stage for the largest extinction event since the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Author's summary: Humans drive species to extinction.