a

Holocene Extinction (6th Mass Extinction)

Did you know humans had the power create a mass extinction event? For 12,000 years, the Holocene extinction has been devastating life on earth; it branches into nearly all taxonomic groups: birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and arthropods. Only 875 extinctions have been documented between the year 1500 and 2010, but, according to International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, there is approximately 140,000 extinctions per year. In the last 12,000 years, all over the globe, a large variety of animals have been wiped out because of human activity.

Extinctions happen everywhere on the world that has increasingly fluctuating weather. Before the Industrial Revolution, the days prior to humans pumping the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the earth was moderately temperate. Today, the average temperature is 64° F, almost 10° F above normal. Because of the climate change, the polar caps are melting, making the Artic inhospitable to a serious of taxonomic groups, which are now in danger of extinction. Since all the glaciers are thawing, the newly liquefied water is flooding into the oceans. The sea-level rise devastates coastally ecology, erodes beaches, and floods agriculture land. This affects the habitats of plants, birds, and sea life, meaning they no longer have a safe place to have their young. With no new offspring, the species cease to exist. The continents most affected by the Holocene extinction are North and South America because that is where a majority of the megafauna lived thousand of years ago; of these was the Woolly mammoth. In the 1800’s, the ecosystem (over hunted and deforested) was not resilient enough to protect themselves from the industrial e...

... middle of paper ...

...2100 if man continue on their harmful rampage. At the present time, there are 3,947 animals critically endangered and 5,766 endangered. The percentages of animals in danger of extinction are 41% of amphibian species, 33% of reef-building corals, 30% of conifers, 25% of mammals, and 13% of birds. Educator is the country with the highest endangered animals, with an insane 2,211.

Since 10,000 BC, following the last ice age, a variety of living things are gone as a result of human life. People not only do one thing harmful to life, they do dozens. It is disgusting that these harmful activities are still be practiced. Amphibians are being affected the more then animals. It is natural to have Background extinction, it shows a healthy ecosystem, but this 6th Mass extinction has gone on too long. Humans need to fix their ways now or else the consequences will be fatal.