The Sixth Great Mass Extinction is upon us. Caused by humans. Homo Sapiens may also be in danger.

The Sixth Great Mass Extinction

Planet Earth is in the midst of the Sixth Great Mass Extinction. Planetary extinctions of species of creatures happen when a catastrophe, event or process takes place that so dramatically changes the environment/eco-system and conditions for living/survival that prevents adaptation.

Past extinction events have been caused by natural phenomenon. The Sixth is different: it is being caused by humans. Human beings (homo sapiens) have existed for just 200,000 years, yet our impact on the planet is so great that scientists around the world are calling for our period in the Earth’s history to be named the ‘Anthropocene‘ – the age of humans. The devastation our species has caused to the planet is perhaps the greatest in its entire existence.

●Species are becoming extinct 100 times faster than they would without human impacts.

●Populations of wild animals have more than halved since 1970, while the human population has doubled.

●That is why scientists and conservationists call what is happening now the ‘sixth mass extinction’. Some have even described the loss of biodiversity today as ‘biological annihilation’.

The Past Five Mass Extinctions

1. End of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago): Extinction of many species in both marine and terrestrial habitats including pterosaurs, mosasaurs and other marine reptiles, many insects, and all non-Avian dinosaurs. The scientific consensus is that this mass extinction was caused by environmental consequences from the impact of a large asteroid hitting Earth in the vicinity of what is now Mexico.

2. Late Triassic (199 million years ago): Extinction of many marine sponges, gastropods, bivalves, cephalopods, brachiopods, as well as some terrestrial insects and vertebrates. The extinction coincides with massive volcanic eruptions along the margins of what is now the Atlantic Ocean.

3. End Permian (252 million years ago): Earth’s largest extinction event, decimating most marine species such as all trilobites, plus insects and other terrestrial animals. Most scientific evidence suggests the causes were global warming and atmospheric changes associated with huge volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia.

4. Late Devonian (378 million years ago): Extinction of many marine species, including corals, brachiopods, and single-celled foraminiferans, from causes that are not well understood yet.

5. Late Ordovician (447 million years ago): Extinction of marine organisms such as some bryozoans, reef-building brachiopods, trilobites, graptolites, and conodonts as a result of global cooling, glaciation, and lower sea levels.

Mass Extinction Criteria and Humans

Species come and go (we will probably be no exception) over the course of time. It is part of life. 98% of every organism ever existing is now extinct. When a species goes extinct in a normal situation over the course of time another creature emerges/evolves to fill the gap. (e.g. mammal after the dinosaurs). However, there is a sustainable condition to this natural change.  When it is abnormal life cannot be replenished.

Earth's normal extinction rate is calculated at 0.1 and 1 species per 10,000 species per 100 years. This is known as the background rate of extinction. A mass extinction event is when species vanish far faster than they are replaced by natural evolution and ecological balancing. This has been defined as about 75% of the world's species being lost in a "short" amount of geological time: less than 2.8million years.

Even a conservative analysis of the rate of extinction of mammals and invertebrates as well as flora and fauna in the last 100 years (i.e. since the advent of industrialisation, consumer society, exploitation of resources, fossil fuels,  dramatic expansion of the human population etc) would indicate that the Earth is the midst of a Mass Extinction Event- perhaps greater and more dangerous than any which has gone before since it is driven by human changes to the planet and not natural events.

How Are We Causing It?

Climate breakdown and habitat destruction caused by human activity are killing off animal and plant populations across the world.

We humans (that is YOU your family, friends, work colleagues) and the choices we make and who we vote for are directly responsible for the drivers and triggers causing extinction:

Pollution.

Habitat destruction.

Exploitation.

Climate Change.

Industrial farming.

Poaching.

Drought.

Wildlife trade.

Disturbance to the ecological balance.

Fossil fuels.

Over consumption.

Throw away society/consumerism

The evidence of our profligacy, criminal carelessness, short-sightedness, greed and selfishness abounds. Sir David Attenborough has over the years made incisive analyses of the problems and causes. 

Even the things you choose to buy and how you organise your home and your life style help drive Climate Change and Mass Extinction. It is not someone elses fault: it is you and me and the choices  we make.

What Have We lost?

Researchers have estimated that by 2100 unless we undertake dramatic  changes to our behaviour and improvements to our conservation efforts we will loses an additional 558 mammal species!

Recent studies estimate about eight million species on Earth, of which at least 15,000 are threatened with extinction. Since 1500 when human society began to stabilise and population increased, trade flourish, it is estimated that 900 species have gone extinct since 1500.  Some have been mindlessly wilfully caused by humans: the Great Auk for example (a large non-flying land living island creature) was hunted to extinction in the 19th.century by European fisherman. The last surviving example was hunted and killed by trophy hunters.

• More than 35,000 species have been evaluated to be threatened with extinction today.
• One-quarter of the world’s mammals; 1-in-6 bird species; and 40% of amphibians are threatened

How Conservation Helps

In a recent study published in Conservation Letters, researchers estimate that between 28 and 48 bird and mammal species would have gone extinct without the conservation efforts implemented when the Convention on Biological Diversity came into force in 1993. 21 to 32 bird species, and 7 to 16 mammal species were pulled back from the brink of extinction. In the last decade alone (from 2010 to 2020), 9 to 18 bird, and 2 to 7 mammal extinctions were prevented. This has preserved hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. It prevented the loss of 120 million years of evolutionary history of birds, and 26 million years for mammals.

BUT it does not mean these species are out of danger: conservation has only created a breathing space for their survival.  Only a permanent change to the way the run the planet can ensure protection, survival and restoration can be guaranteed. 

Around 52 species of mammals, birds and amphibians move one category closer to extinction every year! Without conservation, this number would be 20% higher

It Is Happening in the U.K Too

A quarter of Britain's native mammals are “at imminent risk of extinction”, according to the scientists who have compiled the nation's first official Red List of endangered species.

The destruction of natural habitat, alien invasive species and historic persecution are the main causes of the wildlife declines.

Some of the iconic things we take for granted as part of the fabric of natural Britain are also in danger: such as the Hedgehog; several species of bee and butterfly, the Wild Cat, ground nesting birds, wetlands, wild flower meadows. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Fundamental change is needed in the way we manage our landscapes and plan future developments, so that we provide the space and habitat needed for our wildlife to thrive.    

What is the U.K. Red List?

The Red List for Great Britain has received authorisation on behalf of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at a regional level. This is significant as it means that the threatened British species have been identified using the same robust, internationally-agreed, system that is applied to classify threats to species such as elephants and tigers.

Among those species listed as being at risk of extinction in Britain are the water vole, hedgehog, hazel dormouse, wildcat and the Grey long-eared bat. 

The wild-cat, pine marten,  beaver, Greater mouse-eared bat, Red Squirrel,  Orkney Vole, Serotine bat, Barbastelle bat, Mountain hare, Harvest mouse, Lesser white-toothed shrew, Leisler’s bat, Nathusius’ pipistrelle.