14 DAY TRIAL // According to Stuart Pimm, a biologist now working with Duke University in the United States, current extinction rates are about 1,000 times higher than what the scientific community deems normal.
Specifically, the biologist argues that, as shown by evidence uncovered thus far, plants and animals used to go extinct at a rate of one species per every 10 million each year.
However, it appears that, following the arrival of humans and their slowly taking over the world, global extinction rates reached 100 to 1,000 species per million every year, Live Science informs.
Consequently, it might not be that far-fetched to argue that the world is staring down the barrel of a sixth mass extinction, specialists who have taken the time to research this issue explain.
The bad news – or, better said, the news that should make us feel really bad – is that, whereas the other five mass extinctions our planet has until now experienced had nothing to do with us, this sixth one that is looming over us is our work.
Still, Stuart Pimm and colleagues maintain that, as bad as things seem to be, it is still possible to safeguard biodiversity and ensure that another mass extinction does not occur.
“People often say that we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. We're not in the middle of it — we're on the verge of it. And now we have to tools to prevent it,” the Duke University biologist says in a statement.
“Although things are bad, and this paper shows that they're actually worse than we thought they were, we are in a much better position to do something about that,” he adds.