252 million years ago, in modern day Siberia, a string of volcanic eruptions pierced the
Earth’s crust with pillars of magma.
Greenhouse gases bellowed into the atmosphere.
Life was pushed to the brink, and the Earth’s ecosystem nearly collapsed.
Over millions of years, the Permian Extinction eradicated nearly every species on Earth,
but a greater disaster may be waiting in the wings.
Could another extinction event exterminate life on Earth?
The Earth was created 4.5 billion years ago.
500 million to one billion years later, life emerged at the bottom of the ocean, where
single-celled organisms flourished around hydrothermal vents.
Since the genesis of life, an estimated five billion species have evolved on our planet;
however, 99% of those species are now extinct.
In order to survive the planet’s changing conditions, species evolve to adapt to unexpected
and radical shifts in their environments, which creates competition for food, water,
and territory.
Species that rise above their competition—the so-called fittest, according to Charles Darwin’s
Theory of Natural Selection—dominate the changing world.
Struggling species, on the other hand, dwindle and, eventually, disappear.
Balanced by natural selection, animal and plant populations have fluctuated wildly over
geological time.
From the 90-foot apatosaurus to the giant ground sloth, a diverse range of creatures
have prospered, and perished, on our planet.
Gradual extinction, in other words, is a natural step in the evolution of life; but no amount
of genetic adaptation could prepare living organisms for the catastrophic events to come.
In the last 500 million years, five mass extinctions, known as the Big Five, have nearly annihilated
life on Earth.
To qualify as a mass extinction, an event must eradicate at least half of the species
on our planet, resulting in a significant elevation of the extinction rate.
When the environment changes naturally—even massively—extinction, adaptation, and speciation
follow.
Though natural disasters have rocked our terrestrial planet, life on Earth has survived, evolved,
and flourished for billions of years.
In the last two centuries, the drivers of the natural world have changed.
No longer is the environment governed exclusively by the laws of nature.
Humans, the most dominant species to walk the Earth, have transformed environments around
the world, subverting billions of years of meticulous evolution.
Could humans bring about a Sixth Mass Extinction, the first since the dawn of man?
According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Sixth Mass Extinction has already begun.
It started in the middle of the 20th century, during a period called the Great Acceleration.
During the Great Acceleration, human civilization experienced significant growth, resulting
in a step-increase in anthropogenic damage to the Earth.
Rapid technological advancements, soaring demands for natural resources, and the growing
production of pollutants have exponentially increased our footprint on the natural world.
Few hazards have left a more significant impact than the release of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere.
Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have produced and released CO2 at a rate 100 times
faster than any period in the last 420,000 years.
The astronomical increase in the production of CO2 has destabilized the delicate balance
of our global ecosystem.
To date, greenhouse gases have warmed the planet by almost 1-degree Celsius.
A single degree change in the Earth’s global temperature affects the entire natural world.
Oceans, for example, have absorbed 90% of the excess heat created by man-made CO2.
The rise of ocean temperatures has damaged and destroyed rich aquatic ecosystems like
coral reefs, which could disappear as early as 2050.
Since the Great Acceleration, humans have made little effort to curb our overwhelming
production of greenhouse gases.
In 2018, humans released an estimated 40 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
This byproduct of human industry has negatively impacted the Earth’s climate, pushing vital
ecosystems to and beyond their tipping points.
Now, natural wonders like the Amazon rainforest, one of the most diverse ecosystems in the
world, are inching closer to endangerment and collapse.
The effects of human development extend far beyond the Earth’s climate and atmosphere.
Decades of pollution, deforestation, and consumption have triggered a deadly cascade on par with
the most destructive disasters in history.
Already, the sixth mass extinction event has affected 75% of terrestrial habitats and 66%
of marine habitats.
We’ve interrupted food chains.
We’ve changed weather patterns.
We’ve disrupted ocean currents.
And now, we’re losing species at an alarming rate.
Approximately 200 species of vertebrates have gone extinct in the last 100 years.
That’s about 2 species per year.
If we compare the current rate of extinction to the background or “normal” rate of
extinction, the same 200 vertebrates would have taken approximately 10,000 years to die
out through natural selection.
In other words, human interaction has accelerated the extinction rate by over 100 times—a
rate comparable to the Big Five.
Even low-risk species, including common populations spread throughout the world, are struggling.
A 2017 study examined a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species.
They discovered that 40% of those populations, ranging from low risk to endangered species,
are declining at a dangerous rate.
With so many populations dying and declining, our planet faces a massive deterioration of
global biodiversity.
The impending domino effect will further deplete and destroy worldwide ecosystems.
Can we save the Earth from ourselves?
How long do we have left to preserve our planet?
The Sixth Mass Extinction event is well underway.
The world’s glaciers are melting.
Ecosystems are crumbling.
Access to fresh water is rapidly declining, and humans are creating more toxic waste than
ever.
Humans have severely disrupted the natural world, and the current landscape foreshadows
a greater extinction event to come.
While humans have driven this planet into the ground, we can still return the natural
world to its former glory.
Humans can slow the loss of species.
We can reduce the destruction and pollution of our environment.
We can revitalize a planet that once contained the greatest biodiversity in history.
On the other hand, if the future contains more of the present, humans may damage the
environment beyond repair.
The future of the planet is in our hands.
If we can’t save the Earth, no one else will.