SPECIES EXTINCTION

• We are in the midst of a massive extinction of life on earth. The last extinction took place 250 million years ago and it took Earth’s biodiversity of all species more than 10 million years to bounce back. Unlike prior extinctions, the current one results for the actions of a single species—Homo sapiens. Currently, up to 30,000 species disappear yearly. At this rate we could loose half of Earth’s species within this century. (Jerry Coyne, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago and Hopi E. Hoekstra, John L. Loeb Associate Professor, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and curator of mammals at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.)
• Extinction and global warming are interrelated—Extinctions exacerbate global warming and vise versa. In addition, impacts to the ecosystems that help purify our air and soil makes the earth remaining species more vulnerable to diseases. (Jerry Coyne, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago and Hopi E. Hoekstra, John L. Loeb Associate Professor, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and curator of mammals at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.)