Article: On the Termination of Species
Author: W. Wayt Gibbs
According to an 1998 survey, 70% of biologists believed that a mass extinction was in progress. Of those biologists, a third of them expected to lose between 20 and 50% of the world's species within 30 years. However, we haven't even discovered all of the species on Earth yet; there are still millions out there. Is it possible that some of them could have went extinct before we even acknowledged their presence on our planet? To really determine whether or not a mass extinction is among us, we need to know three things: the natural extinction rate, the current extinction rate, and whether the pace is steady of changing.
We can do a lot of things to prevent it. For example, we can stop deforestation and stop exploiting our resources. That way we could leave something for the future and the many generations to come. Also, we can stop emitting a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by driving less and eating more locally grown food. We just need to make sure that we're not overly damaging the environment and contributing to the demise of our planet. Things are always better than we think they are, we should think positively and believe that we can thousands of species from going extinct within the next decade. We're humans, together we changed the world, and we have to power to save it too.
Author: W. Wayt Gibbs
- Between 1 and 10% of species are extinguished each decade
- In 1998 survey, 70% of biologists believed that a mass extinction was in progress and a third of them expected to lose 20-50% of the world's species within 30 years
- A model suggests a .15% loss in species per decade
- To determine whether a mass extinction is upon us, we need to know 3 things: the natural/background extinction rate, the current extinction rate, and whether the pace is steady or changing
- Typical survival time varies among groups; mammals are the least durable
- There are still millions of species that we haven't discovered yet
- May and his co-workers projected extinction rates to rise 12 to 55 fold over the next 30 years
- In small populations, mutations tend to be mild enough that natural selection doesn't filter them out, thus shortening the time until their extinction
- After a few keystone species are removed, conservationists are worried that entire ecosystems will fall apart
According to an 1998 survey, 70% of biologists believed that a mass extinction was in progress. Of those biologists, a third of them expected to lose between 20 and 50% of the world's species within 30 years. However, we haven't even discovered all of the species on Earth yet; there are still millions out there. Is it possible that some of them could have went extinct before we even acknowledged their presence on our planet? To really determine whether or not a mass extinction is among us, we need to know three things: the natural extinction rate, the current extinction rate, and whether the pace is steady of changing.
We can do a lot of things to prevent it. For example, we can stop deforestation and stop exploiting our resources. That way we could leave something for the future and the many generations to come. Also, we can stop emitting a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by driving less and eating more locally grown food. We just need to make sure that we're not overly damaging the environment and contributing to the demise of our planet. Things are always better than we think they are, we should think positively and believe that we can thousands of species from going extinct within the next decade. We're humans, together we changed the world, and we have to power to save it too.