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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday July 11 2017, @10:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the putting-your-affairs-in-order dept.

Environmental scientists are warning of a sixth mass extinction, pointing to a decline in vertebrate population sizes, even among species of least concern:

Many scientists say it's abundantly clear that Earth is entering its sixth mass-extinction event, meaning three-quarters of all species could disappear in the coming centuries. That's terrifying, especially since humans are contributing to this shift.

But that's not even the full picture of the "biological annihilation" people are inflicting on the natural world, according to a study published Monday [open, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704949114] [DX] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Gerardo Ceballos, an ecology professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and his co-authors, including well-known Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich, cite striking new evidence that populations of species we thought were common are suffering in unseen ways. "What is at stake is really the state of humanity," Ceballos told CNN.

The authors: Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Rodolfo Dirzo.

Also at The Guardian and DW.

Related: For the Second Time, We Are Witnessing a New Geological Epoch: The Anthropocene
Crystals Win in the Anthropocene: 208 Manmade Minerals Identified


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:52AM (5 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:52AM (#537898) Journal

    We got lucky

    Oddly, that was Ehrlich's excuse each time he was challenged and forced to face his utter failure.

    Yet each time when asked to point out the particular piece of luck he could not find a single convincing answer.

    Mass extinction events do not come along slowly as in "entering its sixth mass-extinction event".

    They are sudden events and have external causes, such as impacts or volcanoes (blamed for at least 5 of those 6).

    Human plagues, wars, etc, which were within our power to prevent, had we just a tiny bit of knowledge, don't even enter into the equation of a mass extinction event.

    Seriously, the zombie apocalypse is more believable than drifting into an extinction event.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @04:12AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @04:12AM (#537946)

    Global warming gets a lot of blame while everyone ignores the real problem.
    Yes, we are in the midst of a mass extinction. The external cause is that 3/4 of the Earth's non-frozen, non-water surface has been cleared and replaced with a little thing called agriculture. Not many wild creatures live there anymore. But hey, people gotta eat.

    Global warming is real, and yes, it's caused by humanity, but the more I learn about what's really going on in the world, the more I start to think GW is just a scapegoat; a smoke-and-mirrors distraction, redirecting our attention away from a more nefarious reality. There are much bigger problems on the horizon. Just watch. Really.

    • (Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:14PM (2 children)

      by ewk (5923) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:14PM (#538033)

      3/4? Dude... what have you been smoking?

      It's about 11% of total land surface and about 36% of the total surface that could be made suitable for some sort of crop production.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @02:04PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @02:04PM (#538082)

        The Land Area of the World is 13,003 million ha. 4,889 million ha are classified as ‘agricultural area’ by the FAO (this is 37.6% of the Land Area). The agricultural area use is divided into 3 categories: arable land (28% of the global agricultural area), permanent crops (3%) and permanent meadows and pastures (69%) which account for the largest share of the world’s agricultural area.

        source [ourworldindata.org]

        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:27PM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:27PM (#538128)

          Yes, exactly. 37.6% overall land area times 28% of that arable ~= 10.5%.

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  • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:55PM

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:55PM (#538240)

    Mass extinction events do not come along slowly as in "entering its sixth mass-extinction event".

    What do you base that statement on? Maybe a few naturally occurring cataclysmic events have caused a couple of rapid mass-extinctions, but there is nothing that says a mass-extinction event can't happen (relatively) slowly.

    In the past few hundred years, humans are personally responsible for the extinction of a whole whackton of different species, and the only reason we haven't wiped out a whole whackton more is because of active conservation efforts.

    Just because you feel personally threatened/attacked by the idea that your mere existence is contributing, however indirectly, to a planet-wide catastrophe, doesn't mean it's not true.