Human beings are currently causing the greatest
mass extinction of species since the extinction of
the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If present trends
continue one half of all species of life on earth will
be extinct in less than 100 years, as a result of
habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species,
and climate change. (For details see links below.)
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Following the article below are more than 300 links
to authoritative reports and updates about the current
mass extinction. New articles are added regularly.
(Most recent update April 4, 2007)
Mass Extinction Underway, Majority of Biologists Say
*Washington Post
Tuesday, April 21, 1998
[Note: scroll down this page for HUNDREDS of links to updates about
the current mass extinction. Most recent update: April 4, 2007.]
By Joby Warrick
Staff Writer
A majority of the nation's biologists are convinced that a "mass
extinction" of plants and animals is underway that poses a major
threat to humans in the next century, yet most Americans are only
dimly aware of the problem, a poll says.
The rapid disappearance of species was ranked as one of the planet's
gravest environmental worries, surpassing pollution, global warming
and the thinning of the ozone layer, according to the survey of 400
scientists commissioned by New York's American Museum of Natural
History.
The poll's release yesterday comes on the heels of a groundbreaking
study of plant diversity that concluded than at least one in eight
known plant species is threatened with extinction. Although
scientists are divided over the specific numbers, many believe that
the rate of loss is greater now than at any time in history.
"The speed at which species are being lost is much faster than any
we've seen in the past -- including those [extinctions] related to
meteor collisions," said Daniel Simberloff, a University of
Tennessee ecologist and prominent expert in biological diversity who
participated in the museum's survey. [Note: the last mass extinction
caused by a meteor collision was that of the dinosaurs, 65 million
years ago.]
Most of his peers apparently agree. Nearly seven out of 10 of the
biologists polled said they believed a "mass extinction" was
underway, and an equal number predicted that up to one-fifth of all
living species could disappear within 30 years. Nearly all
attributed the losses to human activity, especially the destruction
of plant and animal habitats.
Among the dissenters, some argue that there is not yet enough data
to support the view that a mass extinction is occurring. Many of the
estimates of species loss are extrapolations based on the global
destruction of rain forests and other rich habitats.
Among non-scientists, meanwhile, the subject appears to have made
relatively little impression. Sixty percent of the laymen polled
professed little or no familiarity with the concept of biological
diversity, and barely half ranked species loss as a "major threat."
The scientists interviewed in the Louis Harris poll were members of
the Washington-based American Institute of Biological Sciences, a
professional society of more than 5,000 scientists.
*
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David Ulansey is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the
California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, and has
taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Boston
University, Barnard College (Columbia University), the
University of Vermont, and Princeton University. He is the
author of a book
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[permaculture] Mass Extinction Underway,
Lawrence F. London, Jr., 04/08/2007