The Sixth Extinction: facing the abyss, will we have the courage to change?
Hunted, exploited, poisoned, forced to live in increasingly cramped territories...
We're talking about animals, regardless of the species they belong to.
Whether they are emotionally close living beings like mammals and vertebrates, or grasshoppers,
spiders, and ants... they are all facing extinction.
Similarly, all environmental indicators are loudly telling us that we are heading towards
a planetary catastrophe.
Or more precisely, towards the "Sixth Mass Extinction."
Below we barely mention a few examples, not even among the most significant, because,
as we are about to see, the disappearance of insects, which serve as food for birds,
is also much more serious than the disappearance of more emotionally engaging species such
as wolves or whales.
. But hey, it's also necessary to make an impact
on those who are listening, right?
Ok…
In less than a century, the elephant population in Africa has declined from 12 million individuals
to 415,000 individuals reported in the latest census of 2019.
The African lion survives in only 10% of its historical range, and in 100 years, the population
has dropped from 200,000 to less than 20,000 individuals, a staggering 90% decline.
Bottom trawling and indiscriminate fishing kill about 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises
each year.
Similarly, about 400,000 marine turtles get entangled in bottom trawling nets annually,
with over 150,000 of them dying.
According to experts, there are now less than 3,000 tigers in the wild, a number that shows
a steady decline and poses a serious risk to the specie.
From 1940 to 1980, three subspecies have already gone extinct: the Bali tiger, the Javan tiger,
and the Caspian tiger.
In India, traditionally considered the main homeland of tigers, a government estimate
showed that there are likely only 1,411 individuals left.
It is believed that 95% of wild tigers have gone extinct in the last century.
And then there's everything else...
a chaotic mix of animals, insects, and plants that, despite not having the fame of those
we just mentioned, constitute the true essence of the problem.
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What sound does a species make when it goes extinct?
Apparently, none, given the alarming numbers that extinction has reached today.
To be a bit more precise, the disappearance of animal and plant species does make a sound:
it's an alarm cry, but one that few seem to be able to hear.
Those who listen to that cry and try to amplify it every day have estimated that the current
rate at which biodiversity is disappearing is at least 1,000 times higher than normal.
A normalcy that - we must remember - predicted extinction, but certainly not on this scale.
Extinction is, in fact, a fundamental natural process that plays a key role in the grand
game of life's evolution on Earth.
Through evolution, living species differentiate from one another, multiply, thrive, and then,
when something in the environment changes and they are no longer fit to survive, they
go extinct, leaving the empty space - the ecological niche - for someone else.
Extinction has therefore always existed and will always exist, and considering the long
history of life on Earth (over 4 billion years), it is reasonable to think that 99.9% of all
species that have ever lived on our planet have already gone extinct.
Someone has even tried to estimate the number of different organisms that have lived (and
then gone extinct) on Earth until now: an impossible number to calculate, but it could
be between 5 and 50 billion different species.
These figures are impressive when compared to the tens of millions of animal and plant
species currently estimated on Earth, of which only about 1.9% have been formally described
by science.
Extinction is, therefore, the natural fate of all living species, and sooner or later,
it will affect everyone, including Homo sapiens.
Each species is born with an expiration date that, on average, ranges from 5 to 10 million
years of existence.
These numbers vary greatly depending on the taxonomic groups considered, the level of
specialization, and the breadth of their habitat.
For example, the average lifespan of a mammal species like ours is about 1 or 2 million
years, while for invertebrates - especially marine ones - the expectation is significantly
longer, up to 11 million years.
A species becomes extinct - intuitively - when the last individual representing it dies,
but there is also a "programmed" type of extinction, known as functional extinction, which is attributed
to an organism whose population is so small that it can no longer recover.
And perhaps this is the saddest extinction of all, the one that can no longer be avoided.
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Usually, extinctions occur slowly and gradually, but from time to time, it can happen that
a large number of living species suddenly disappear together, within a relatively short
time on a geological scale, due to catastrophic events on a global scale.
These exceptional events are called mass extinctions and involve at least 75% of the living beings
that inhabit the planet at that time.
It has happened at least five times in the history of life on Earth.
The most catastrophic one was the Permian extinction, about 250 million years ago, when
over 90% of known marine species went extinct, and life was at risk of being wiped out forever.
The last and most famous of all is the Cretaceous extinction, about 66 million years ago, which
saw the disappearance of almost all dinosaurs except for birds, due to the impact of a meteorite
on Earth.
Extinction from an ecological standpoint isn't inherently a bad thing, unless it's your own
species that goes extinct, because it opens up the field for new life forms.
In fact, almost always, mass extinction is followed by rapid and explosive adaptive radiation,
which is a swift evolution and diversification of new species from the few survivors.
It is indeed thanks to that meteorite and countless other fortunate contingencies that
we are here today.
The disappearance of most dinosaurs, in fact, cleared the way for us mammals, the new rulers
of the planet.
At least, until now.
In recent centuries, more and more species are rapidly becoming extinct.
All experts agree that we are currently in the midst of what is called the Sixth Mass
Extinction.
This time, however, it is not an event caused by the impact of a meteorite or a sudden glaciation.
The catastrophe that is literally making hundreds of species disappear every year has a name
and a surname: Homo sapiens.
Ever since the invention of agriculture, the impact of human activities on biodiversity
has unfortunately been incredibly strong and invasive.
The rate at which living species are going extinct has reached impressive numbers, well
above normal extinction rates.
It seems that the situation has even accelerated in the last 50 years.
Do you want some more numbers?
Ok!
-Approximately 75% of terrestrial and 66% of marine environments have been significantly
altered by human activity.
-More than one-third of the Earth's land area and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are
now dedicated to agricultural or livestock production.
-In the last 30 years, the area of urban regions has more than tripled.
-Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980.
We produce 300 million tons of plastic each year, with about eight million tons ending
up in the seas and oceans.
Straws, bags, and various artifacts contribute to about 150 million tons of trash currently
contaminating marine environments.
It forms a veritable ocean of plastic that takes centuries, if not millennia, to degrade
and causes the death of millions of marine animals through ingestion and suffocation.
-Every year, 170 billion animals are slaughtered: that's 5,000 per second!
Runoffs from agricultural areas contain pesticides, fertilizers, and waste from intensive livestock
farming.
Over 5 million tons of pesticides are sprayed on fields each year, with half of them ending
up in the sea via rivers.
Furthermore, 500 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other industrial
waste are dumped into the world's waters annually.
A very bad situation…
A situation that will lead to the complete collapse of the Earth's ecosystem because,
as someone once said, "If you take one brick out of a wall, nothing happens, but if you
take too many bricks out, the house will collapse."
Each time the Earth loses a species, the overall survival capacity of the environment decreases,
and humanity will bear the consequences because we "rely on a stable climate, freshwater,
insects crucial for agriculture and disease control, pollinators, and other aspects tied
to a functioning ecosystem."
Since 1500 alone, it is estimated that at least 900 different species have become extinct,
including 85 mammals, 159 birds, 35 amphibians, and 80 fish.
These are conservative estimates that may worsen in the near future.
Habitat destruction, pollution, and overexploitation are some of the primary causes of biodiversity
loss that can be directly attributed to human activities.
Are you suggesting that we forgot to mention climate change as one of the causes?
Well, let us be clear: global warming, in our opinion, is a massive media scam, a factor
that is largely irrelevant to the ecological crisis.
With climate change, species may shift, but they don't necessarily disappear en masse.
However, politics and economic interests ensure that attention is diverted from the real cause,
which is solely due to the reckless and greedy exploitation of environmental resources.
Billions of dollars are being allocated to an inconclusive fight against CO2, enriching
politicians and multinational corporations under the guise of transitioning to a green
economy, while shamelessly continuing the destruction of ecosystems and the slaughter
of animals.
Due to human activities, we have already lost countless irreplaceable fragments of biodiversity.
These species, now gone forever, should serve as a warning to all of humanity that we need
to change course as soon as possible to prevent irreparable damage to ecosystems and our future.
So, let's take a closer look at some of the iconic species that have become extinct precisely
because of human actions.
The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Wolf: extinct in 1936
Also known by the name Tasmanian Tiger because of the dark transverse stripes on its back,
the Thylacine was a carnivorous marsupial widespread in Australia, Tasmania and New
Guinea.
It was Australia's largest carnivore and a predator at the top of the food chain.
Although it bears a remarkable resemblance to a dog, especially in skull conformation,
the last common ancestor between canids and thylacines dates back about 160 million years,
making it one of the most emblematic cases of evolutionary convergence.
Disappearing first in New Guinea and later in Australia, the Thylacine survived in Tasmania
until the 1930s.
It was considered harmful to livestock,and was therefore gradually exterminated by settlers.
This, together with habitat reduction and competition with the dingo, decreed its extinction.
The last specimen seen in the wild was in 1930, while in captivity the Thylacine named
Benjamin died in 1936, in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania.
The Western Black Rhinoceros: Extinct in 2006 The Western Black Rhinoceros, a subspecies
of the black rhinoceros, was once widespread in Southeast Africa.
In the early 20th century, it was heavily hunted, prompting measures for its repopulation
as early as the 1930s.
However, these efforts were unsuccessful.
By 1980, only a few hundred Western Black Rhinoceros remained, and by 2000, there were
just 10 individuals.
The subspecies was officially declared extinct in 2006.
The Northern White Rhinoceros: Declared extinct in 2018
The Northern White Rhinoceros, a subspecies of the White Rhinoceros, inhabited regions
such as Uganda, Chad, Sudan, parts of the Central African Republic, and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Between 1970 and 1980, the population drastically declined from 500 to just 15 individuals.
In 2005, the last four remaining free individuals were killed by poachers.
The Barbary Lion: Extinct in 1942 Also known as the Atlas Lion due to its native
habitat in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, the Barbary Lion was characterized by its
long brown mane, extending over the shoulder and down to the belly.
The last specimen was killed in 1942 in Morocco.
The California Grizzly Bear: Extinct since 1924
The California Grizzly Bear, prominently featured on American flags, has been absent for nearly
100 years, with no traces or even photographs remaining of this species.
In the early 1920s, it was hunted because it was considered a threat to urbanization,
and later it was exploited for fighting against bulls.
Within a few years, the absence of individuals of reproductive age led to its definitive
disappearance.
The Quagga: Extinct since 1883 The Quagga was once widespread in an area
that roughly corresponds to present-day South Africa.
Resembling a zebra, it had a coat with white and brown stripes concentrated on the muzzle,
neck, and front of the body.
Apparently, it had a more docile temperament compared to the zebra, now considered a subspecies
rather than a separate species.
The Quagga was hunted by colonizers for its meat and hides, as well as to preserve pastures
for domestic livestock.
These animals will never be seen again, not because the environmental balance had run
its course, but due to the greed, indifference, and cruelty of humanity.
They say that nature will need about 5 million years to recover from the extinctions we have
caused, but it will never bring back these specific animal species.
The images of the last Thylacine, a melancholic prisoner in a cage, will forever serve as
a testament to our shortsightedness and irresponsibility.