Mass extinction means three out of every four species you are familiar with would disappear off the face of the Earth. We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity’s existence, researchers have declared.
Researchers say a new study shows ‘without any significant doubt’ that we are entering the sixth great mass extinction on earth.The study says that the window for conserving threatened species is rapidly closing.
320 species extinct since 1500
Since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct.Populations of the remaining species show a 25 percent average decline in abundance, and the situation is similarly dire for invertebrate animal life.Across vertebrates, 16 to 33 percent of all species are estimated to be globally threatened or endangered.
Large animals – described as mega-fauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide – face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events.
Also Researchers says – Over the last century, species of vertebrates are dying out up to 114 times faster than they would have without human activity, who used the most conservative estimates to assess extinction rates. That means the number of species that went extinct in the past 100 years would have taken 11,400 years to go extinct under natural extinction rates, the researchers said.
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