Sunday 21 June 2015

Mass Extinctions of Earth

Why in news?
With animals disappearing about 100 times faster than they used to, the world has embarked on its sixth mass extinction, said scientists in a report published in the Science Advances journal. 

What does the study say?

  • Under a “natural” rate of extinction, the study said that two species go extinct per 10,000 species per 100 years.
  • Modern rates of extinction were eight to 100 times higher, the authors found. 
    • For example, 477 vertebrates have gone extinct since 1900, rather than the nine that would be expected at natural rates.
  • It’s really signalling we’ve entered a sixth extinction and it’s driven by man
  • We are the species that are causing the loss of all these other species. 
  • By losing species humanity was losing what enabled us to have a “good standard of living”.

What are the causes?
They range from climate change to pollution to deforestation and more.

What were the other mass extinctions?

Source: 360bybike.com
Source: Slideshare

[Sources: The Hindu, Times of India]

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