The sixth mass extinction is happening now, and it doesn’t look good for us

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The sixth mass extinction is happening now, and it doesn’t look good for us – Corey Bradshaw

MOUNTING evidence is pointing to the world having entered a sixth mass extinction. If the current rate of extinction continues, we could lose most species by 2200. The implication for human health and wellbeing is dire, but not inevitable.

In the timeline of fossil evidence going right back to the first inkling of any life on Earth – over 3.5 billion years ago – almost 99% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. That means that as species evolve over time – a process known as ‘speciation’ – they replace other species that go extinct.

Extinctions and speciations do not happen at uniform rates through time; instead, they tend to occur in large pulses interspersed by long periods of relative stability. These extinction pulses are what scientists refer to as mass extinction events.

The Cambrian explosion was a burst of speciation some 540 million years ago. Since then, at least five mass extinction events have been identified in the fossil record (and probably scores of smaller ones).

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