The Current Extinction Rate Throughout the World: We Must Act Now

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Human beings are heavily reliant on nature’s biodiversity. This biodiversity, however, is threatened by accelerating extinction rates which are approaching past mass extinction levels. Human activities are largely responsible for this trend, and, while there has been some success in preserving select species, the scale of the impending extinction will necessitate the conservation of existing ecosystems if biodiversity is to be preserved. Fortunately, the relative geographical concentration of most biodiversity makes such efforts both possible and economically feasible.

The past 400 million years of earth’s biological history have been marked by five great periods of extinction, in which the existing life was largely replaced by new forms. The most recent of these occurred some 65 million years ago, marking the end of the Mesozoic Era. Now, evidence indicates that another of these cataclysmic periods is beginning, with one key difference; it will be brought about by humans. In the 150,000 of human existence the extinction rate has risen by a factor of 100, and possibly by as much a...

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