Grizzly bears are locally extinct in Colorado. To many people, this might not mean much.
And to tell you the truth, it really didn't mean much to me for a while either. I mean,
it's not that important. Grizzly bears are still alive, aren't they? They're not on the
endangered species list. And it's not like they're at risk of going extinct everywhere, right?
Maybe... Maybe not. What I know is that the question brought up more questions.
What about the animals that have already gone extinct? The ones that are endangered?
What about the fuzzy polar bears in the Arctic? Their habitat is being destroyed.
Habitat destruction. Hmmm... That sounds familiar. Oh! Right... That's the reason grizzly bears
are extinct in Colorado, along with overhunting. Maybe these are related. Maybe... Maybe not.
I don't know. But I know this. Humans are prospering, but only at the expense of other creatures.
Around thirty thousand species of animals die every year. That's one species every three hours.
Biodiversity is decreasing at a rate one hundred to one thousand times greater
than it ever has. So that means by 2100, half of the Earth's life forms will be extinct.
This increase in extinction is influenced by many different factors. However, many scientists
agree that the cause of this sudden increase is a direct result of widespread human impacts on Earth.
Scientists have named the present time period the Anthropocene, a time period
defined by the extent of human activities, especially climate change, causing a huge
impact on the Earth's ecosystems, all leading to the Earth's largest extinction.