The Sixth Extinction

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The world is in the the midst of a mass extinction event.  It is the sixth mass extinction event since the origin of multicellular life over 550 million years ago and the first since anatomically modern humans evolved about 350,000 years ago.  It is likely that 25-50% of species on the planet will be extinct by the end of this century if current trends continue.  Whereas the five previous mass extinctions on the planet were a result of major physical changes in the planet's systems that no one species was responsible for or could control, the sixth extinction is a result of human activities, including destruction of natural systems, overexploitation of resources, moving species around the planet, and production of greenhouse gasses.

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How Did We Get Here

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Following the last ice age, a number of human societal developments occurred that led to where we are today, including agriculture, "civilization", and industrialization.  The consequences of these developments for natural systems has been devastating.  Their impact accelerated following the industrial revolution and again following the second world war, as human population increased, the average resource use per person increased, and technology advanced.  Two hundred years ago, there were just over one billion people on the planet living less resource intensive and largely agrarian lifestyles.  Today there is nearly 8 billion people on the planet exploiting resources for food, housing, energy, toys, cars, computers, etc.

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How Bad Is It

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The resources humans use are produced by the planet.  It is the only planet in all of the hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe that we know supports life.  If all the living things on the planet cumulatively use less resources than are produced each year, we maintain a yearly production of resources that can be used again and again, year after year after year.  However, if we use more than is produced each year, we begin to damage resource production and each year less and less is produced while demand is not reduced.  Eventually, we run out of resources.

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Currently, humans are using 75% more natural resources per year than the earth produces.  We are living as if we have 1.75 planet earths while we only have one.  As long as this continues, natural systems will be degraded and species will go extinct.  Eventually, the quality of human life has to decline as resources decline and the ability of the planet to absorb the by-products of human activities is overwhelmed.

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What Can We Do

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-- Eat less meat

-- Vote for conservation minded representatives

-- Protect terrestrial and marine species and their habitats in nature reserves

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How Can I learn More

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This was a very quick overview of a few important topics. Visit the photography section of this site to see some of the amazing creatures that inhabit our planet and check out the references below to dig deeper.

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Ceballos, G. et al. 2015. The Annihilation of Nature. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kolbert, E. 2014. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Henry Holt and Company.

Wallace-Wells, D. 2019. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. Tim Duggan Books.

Wilson, E. O. 2002. The Future of Life. Vintage Books.

Wilson, E. O. 2016. Half Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life. Liveright Publishing Corporation.

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