Summary - According to an article called "The Extinction Crisis," it explains how our planet is now in the "midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals - the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years."
- It says that unfortunately, we are experiencing one of the worst spate of species die-offs since the "loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago." - Extinction is considered a natural phenomenon. - Multiple factors as for why the animals and plants get extinct are because of mass extinctions that are caused by events like "asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, and natural climate shifts." - But, scientists believe that the main cause of this catastrophic event is us, humans. - In fact, "99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, an introduction of exotic species, and global warming." - The article also exemplifies how the rate of change in our biosphere has been increasing. - "Conserving local population is the only way to ensure genetic diversity critical for a species' long-term survival." - Although that scientist knows approximately 1,000 species that have gone extinct, there are thousands more that disappeared before scientists had a chance to describe them. - There is no individual that is able to now how many species are in danger of becoming extinct. - The group of animal that has a higher rate of endangerment is amphibians. Scientists estimated that "a third or more of all the roughly 6,300 known species of amphibians are at risk of extinction." - Amphibians include animals such as frogs, toads, and salamanders which are disappearing because of "habitat loss, water, and air pollution, climate change, ultraviolet light exposure, introduced exotic species, and diseases." - Other types of species that are getting extinct are birds, fishes, invertebrates, mammals, plants, and reptiles. |
The Extinction CrisisFacts- Our planet is losing about one to five species per year.
- "Scientist estimate we are now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate." In other words, we are dozens of species are going extinct every day. - There is a possibility that around 30 to 50 percent of all species will be extinct by mid-century. - "In the past 500 years, we know of approximately 1,000 species that have gone extinct, from the woodland bison of West Virgina and Arizona's Merriam's elk to the Rocky Mountain grasshopper, passenger pigeon and Puerto Rico's Culebra parrot..." - According to scientist David Wilcove, he estimated that there are between "14,000 to 35,000 endangered species in the United States, which is 7 to 18 percent of U.S flora and fauna." - Birds provide an important "bellwether for tracking changes to the biosphere." Unfortunately, according to BirdLife International, "12 percent of known 9,865 bird species are now considered threatened." - The American Fisheries Society found that "700 species of freshwater or anadromous fish in North America as being imperiled, amounting to 39 percent of all such fish of the continent." - There are around 1.3 million species known as invertebrate and the IUCN has evaluated about "9,526 species, with about 30 percent of the species evaluated at risk of extinction/" - The IUCN also estimated that almost 50 percent of the world's primate species, talking about those species that are mammals, are at risk of extinction too. - When it comes to flora, around "68 percent of evaluated plant species are treated with extinction." - The IUCN did a research about reptiles in which they found that in the United States, "32 reptile species are at risk, about 9 percent of the total," since they are around "594 species. |
Key Terms- Extinction: The state or process of a species, family, or larger group being or becoming extinct (disappear).
- Habitat loss: The process in which natural habitat is rendered unable to support the species present. - Biosphere: The regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living organisms. - Exotic species: Also known as alien species, invasive species, non-indigenous species, and bioinvaders, are species of plants or animals that are growing in a non-native environment. - Global warming: A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants. - Ecosystem: A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. - Flora: The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period. - Fauna: The animals of a particular region, habitat, or geological period. - Water pollution: The contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, and groundwater). - Air pollution: The presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. - Climate change: A change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns that change lasts for an extended period of time. - Ultraviolet light: A type of radiation that is all around us even though our eyes can not detect it since it has a frequency higher than a visible light. |
Opinion
In my opinion, multiple species will keep getting extinct and the main cause of it is overhunting, overharvesting, habitat loss, air and water pollution, deforestation and other catastrophic factors that are all created by humans. In other words, humans are the lead cause of extinction since they decide to cut trees, to dump garbage into the water and to kill multiple species in order to sell it, eat it, or just because they believe the animals are a danger for humans. Unfortunately, many individuals believe that it does not matter when species go extinct but they are wrong since a single species' disappearance will make a huge difference on a global scale. According to a scientist called Jennifer Bove, "plants and animals depend on each other as well as microorganisms, land, water, and climate to keep our entire system alive and well." In other words, removing one species will lead to small changes that then will lead to big problems that will not be easy to fix. The World Wildfire Fund once said, "when you remove one element from a fragile ecosystem, it has far-reaching and long-lasting effects on biodiversity." In order for humans to stop extinction, they should learn more about endangered species in their area, visit a national wildfire refugee, make their home wildlife friendly, recycle more, buy sustainable products, and most importantly, protect wildlife habitat.