Earth’s sixth mass extinction is already underway

(Daily Mail), 11 July 2017 -  Earth’s sixth mass extinction is already underway, meaning thousands of species are at risk of disappearing forever, scientists have warned.   

And wildlife faces further ‘biological annihilation’ if measures are not taken within the next 20 years to arrest ‘powerful assaults on biodiversity’, researchers said.   

Human overpopulation and greed are driving factors behind the destruction of species on Earth, which is having a negative impact on ecosystems, according to researchers.The grim warning, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, states that the hidden rate of species population decreases mean ‘Earth’s sixth mass extinction episode has proceeded further than most assume’.   

The report, involving scientists at both Stanford and Mexico City universities, found the current rate of vertebrate extinction during the last century was two species a year.   

This is compared with two species every 100 years over the last two million years.