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9 - Why We’re in the Sixth Great Extinction and What It Means to Humanity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2019

By
Partha S. Dasgupta  and
Paul R. Ehrlich
Edited by
Partha Dasgupta ,
Peter Raven  and
Anna McIvor
Partha Dasgupta
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Peter Raven
Affiliation:
Missouri Botanical Garden
Anna McIvor
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The annihilation of biological diversity is one of the most severe human-induced global environmental problems. Species and populations are being driven to extinction every year at so high a rate, that Earth’s assemblage of plants and animals is now well into a sixth mass extinction episode. The most recent Living Planet Index has estimated that wildlife abundance on the planet dropped by some 60 per cent between 1970 and 2012 (WWF, 2016). The richest biota the world has ever seen is disappearing in the blink of an eye from the perspective of geological time. And humanity is busily making it worse.

Type
Chapter
Information
Biological Extinction
New Perspectives
 , pp. 262 - 284
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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