The Earth stands on the brink of its sixth mass extinction and the fault is ours

[Judi Lynn]

The Earth stands on the brink of its sixth mass extinction and the fault is ours

The rate at which vertebrate species are now dying far exceeds the norm

Jan Zalasiewizc
Saturday 20 June 2015 19.05 EDT


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The marine Tylosaurus and the flying Pteranodon died out in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction.
Photograph: Arthur Dorety/Corbis
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Life on Earth is in trouble. That much we know. But how bad have things become – and how fast are events moving? How soon, indeed, before the Earth’s biological treasures are trashed, in what will be the sixth great mass extinction event? This is what Gerardo Caballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and his colleagues have assessed, in a paper that came out on Friday.

These are extraordinarily difficult questions. There are many millions of species, many elusive and rare, and inhabiting remote and dangerous places. There are too few skilled biologists in the field to keep track of them all. Demonstrating beyond reasonable doubt that any single species is extinct is arduous and painstaking (think how long it took to show – to most people, at least – that Loch Ness probably does not harbour a large monster).

And it’s not just a case of making a head-count of modern extinctions. This needs to be compared with a long-term “baseline” rate of extinctions in our planet’s long geological history. This can only be extracted via the equally painstaking and difficult work of excavating and identifying millions of fossils from the almost endless rock strata. Not surprisingly, different studies made so far on different fossils have yielded different baseline rates.

Caballos and colleagues have thought through these difficulties, and come up with probably the most robust estimate yet of how severe the modern crisis is.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/21/mass-extinction-science-warning

[livetohike]

1. K&R

[ladjf]

2. Not to worry. After we are gone in a few thousand years, nature will be able to

recover from most of our blundering. We are showing clear signs of becoming the least successful species ever to walk the Earth.

[Tea Potty]

3. Wrong

The damage we are doing may take hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of years for Earth to balance again. In human lifetime scales, that fairly permanent. There is also a real threat for self-reinforcing feedbacks, pushing Earth into a new state of no return.

It all depends on us, right now, who determine how much we want to commit this mass suicide.

Unfortunately many like yourself, despite believing in Climate Change, are still in denial about how screwed we are. Its not really your fault. Here is some honest truth:
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/15/8612113/truth-climate-change

[ladjf]

4. No, I'm not wrong other than the fact that my post was too brief

to clarify exactly what I meant.

Most of the damage that has been done will never revert to the way it was exactly.

I am most definitely NOT in denial about how screwed up we are. I just didn't feel that it was appropriate or constructive to go into all the gory details. Save your instructional lectures for someone who needs it.

The info you recommended is "spot on " correct. It is information that all humans need to be aware of.

I'm also aware that in the end, the Sun will become a red giant and wipe out everything on Earth.

You probable already know this, but just is case:

http://www.universetoday.com/12648/will-earth-survive-when-the-sun-becomes-a-red-giant/