Humans might go extinct sooner than we thought
Scientists from Stanford and Mexico City University have warned we may go extinct sooner than we previously believed.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has revealed that species are being wiped out 100 times faster than in the previous millennium. Researchers observed 27,600 species of birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles and concluded that the planet’s sixth mass extinction, caused by the man, might be worse than expected.
The current rate of vertebrate extinction in the last century is two species a year. Comparing to two species every 100 years in the last million years, this is worrying. “As much as 50 per cent of the number of animal individuals that once shared Earth with us are already gone, as are billions of populations,” the report wrote. “We emphasise that the sixth mass extinction is already here and the window for effective action is very short, probably two or three decades at most. All signs point to ever more powerful assaults on biodiversity in the next two decades, painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life.”
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It also added: “The resulting biological annihilation obviously will also have serious ecological, economic, and social consequences. Humanity will eventually pay a very high price for the decimation of the only assemblage of life that we know of in the universe.”
Governments, businesses and every single person on Earth needs to make an effort and rethink how we produce, consume and value the world around us, as Mike Barrett, director of science and policy at WWF-UK, told the Independent.
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