Some 66 million years ago, dinosaurs were completely wiped out of the surface of the Earth due to an asteroid. Could the same thing happen to the human race, this time due to our own doing?
Scientists from Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley recently warned that the world is on the brink of a "sixth mass extinction" event, and human beings can be one of the species that can completely disappear from Earth.
What exactly is triggering this mass extinction event? In a study published on the scientific journal "Science Advances," the researchers said that the rate of extinction during the 20th century and the early part of the 21st became 100 times faster because of human interference.
Some signs of the "sixth extinction" include the rapid melting of polar ice caps and the decreasing water supply all over the world, the scientists pointed out.
"This is very depressing because we used the most conservative rates, and even then they are much higher than the normal extinction rate, really indicating we are having a massive loss of the species," Dr. Gerardo Ceballos, a professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico, who co-authored the study, said.
"It's really signalling we've entered a sixth extinction and it's driven by man," he added.
In particular, the study pointed to increased carbon emissions, slash-and-burn agriculture and introduction of invasive species in the environment as the causes of the surge in extinction rates.
"There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead," Stanford's Paul Ehrlich, another co-author of the study, said in a statement.
Due to these findings, the researchers urged the human race to undertake "rapid, greatly intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species."
They also called for the alleviation of "pressures on populations—notably habitat loss, over-exploitation for economic gain and climate change."
