INTRODUCTION
There were 5 mass extinctions in the past, with the latest one more known to man, the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction that caused the wiped out of the dinosaurs. Though the latest one happened 65 million years ago, something representing this phenomenon of mass extinction is underway in our era. While past mass extinctions were caused by natural forces, and asteroid, climate change and sea level’s changes were thought to be the culprit, this time the actor behind is not natural, and it is us Human Beings. It might occur to many that the current trend of animal extinction has no consequences on us, but in fact it is not true. Many of the endangered species does matter to us significantly. In this paper, using examples of some neglected critical endangered species as main headings, I will look into different forms of human activities that had led to their losses, and also more importantly how these losses could have impacted on us.
THE NEW EXTINCTION
Mass extinction defined by David Jablonski, American professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago is, “the substantial biodiversity losses that occur rapidly and are global in extent” (Kolbert, 2014) But how exactly is the seriousness of the current species loss that could actually be compared to the definition aforesaid? Though the exact number of species on earth is too complicated to be calculated, researchers have been trying to figure out some ways to estimate the numbers. The extinction rate today estimated by experts is to be between 1000 and 10000 times higher than the rate if human have not been around (background rate) reflecting the harm that are done by human activities is not imagined and indeed very serious. (Thomas et al., 2004) For ...
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...d ensure what we have today. According to the National Geographic News, “There are more than 20,000 plants and animals are on the brink of disappearing forever.” (National Geographic News, 2005)
Animal threatening to extinction is not a myth, is real and is happening. As the world becomes more interconnected and globalized, trading and economic issues has been the most important agenda to most countries, where animals and the environment has been ignored, and whatever benefits us even if harming the latter is not considered wrong. In my opinion, despite knowing the impact to us human beings behind animal extinction, we should not let animals that have lived for millions of years to go extinct solely because of us and our selfishness. We have to start thinking about the earth as a whole where we share with all the animals, and not human beings as the dominant group.
In this paper Martin is arguing that late quaternary or near time extinctions where caused by human activity or as he calls it “overkill”. Martin recognizes that there have been many forces that have triggered extinctions in the planet on the past but disagrees with the idea that near time extinctions where caused by some commonly believed causes like climate change, disease or nutrient shortage. He argues that the arrival of humans to different continents, islands and the subsequent excessive hunting, the introduction of diseases and other competitors and predators was the cause of extinction of a great number of species “As our species spread to various continents we wiped out their large
On a day to day basis, most people take for granted the lives we get to live, and put too much value on the extra things such as materialistic items. Also, the majority of humans are too invested in their personal lives or with themselves that they do not look at the big picture of how what we are doing now will effect us later. As humans, the routines in our lives can bring us harm, and within time a we may become the sixth extinction. In “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert, she gives many examples of animals that are or may become extinct. Along with ways humans contribute to the effort of putting them in danger or having them become extinct. In the end having a summary of how this all comes together and impacts us humans in more
Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must be taken immediately!
The Extinction of Dinosaurs How did the dinosaurs become extinct? This is a question that has stumped scientists ever since dinosaur fossils were first discovered. There are many theories as to how the dinosaurs became extinct. This page presents some of the most popular theories. Keep in mind that there is no absolutely proven theory.
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.
of species due to a variety of causes. Included is out competition, depletion of resources
Several mass extinctions have occurred during the Earth’s history. The Cretaceous – Tertiary Boundary (K-T) Extinction caused the loss of at least three-quarters of all species known at that time including the dinosaurs. The cause of this mass extinction is a controversial subject among scientists but the fossil evidence of it’s occurrence is abundant.
Humans are destructive. Not a lot of us think about how what we do affects the world around us. We almost act like we are the only ones on this planet. We go around polluting and destroying our world with no regard for our actions. The things that live out in the wild are paying the price for it. Every day that passes there is another animal or plant that is placed on an endangered list. This is happening at an alarming rate. Because of man’s desire to expand and conquer their surroundings, there are animals and plants that are on the brink of extinction that will not be around for our kids and future generations to enjoy if something is not done about it now. This problem has been going on for hundreds of years. There are animals and plants that can only been seen in paintings or early photography. It is because of our early ancestors that we have this problem today and we have to do more to prevent more animals and plants from disappearing forever.
Many of these causes could be prevented fairly easily. If people today would just follow some simple rules, none of these would be as big as they are now.
Earth has gone through five fully major extinctions before. We currently are in the process of Earth’s sixth mass extinction. This mass extinction is closely related in severity to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Earth’s extinctions are broken into three different areas. The first area was the large number of animals caught by hunter-gathers. The discovery of agriculture led to the second area of extinction, wildlife habitats. These wildlife habitats were destroyed due to humans starting to stay in one area.
Biodiversity loss can lead to extinction, and hurt human life. It is our responsibility to take care of the environment. We bring in machines that harm the environment and destroy animal life. We need to limit ourselves on how much land and resources we consume. There are major issues that are causing species to become extinct and hurt our way of life and other animals do to the change in food chain.
As stated above, there are a multitude of causes for this “mass extinction”, and most all of them are caused by humans. One such causality is overfishing. Everyone loves to eat fish. However, with overfishing, humans are collecting more fish than we can consume as a population. Overfishing is when people collect more fish from the o...
Various plant and animal species depend on each other for what each offers and these diverse species ensures natural sustainability for all life forms. A healthy and solid biodiversity can recover itself from a variety of disasters. It is estimated that the current species extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be. Therefore, there is an urgent need, not only to manage and conserve the biotic wealth, but also restore the degraded ecosystems. c) Captivity breeding species can again be reintroduced into the wild.
Nowadays it is common to read articles in newspapers and magazines regarding biodiversity issues. Human beings have been knowingly and unknowingly destroying biodiversity since their existence. Biodiversity is the measure of the variety of species of animals living in an area. Forests are usually areas with high biodiversity while deserts are the opposite. Human beings have always destroyed biodiversity either by deforestation, or by some other means. Biodiversity depletion is a natural phenomenon. But the present levels of biodiversity depletion are many times higher than the natural rate. Recently the levels of loss in biodiversity have started causing global concern. Some of the main causes for loss in biodiversity are alteration of habitats, increasing levels of pollution and human population growth.