Extinction rates have reached unprecedented levels since dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago . Now, a new study carried out by a team of scientists from the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment (USA) and the Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico) concludes without a doubt that our planet is beginning a new stage of mass extinction that threatens even the survival of humanity itself. The study has been published in the journal Science Advances .
The scientists used fossil annotations and extinction counts from various records, comparing a very conservative estimate of current extinctions with the so-called “background rate” (the extinction recorded on average over the last 60 million years) twice as high as that used. previously.
The work shows that even with very prudent estimates, species are disappearing up to 100 times faster than normal: “if it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our own species would probably disappear soon,” he explains. Gerardo Ceballos, study leader.
Forest exploration , land grabbing for agriculture , invasive species , ocean acidification or toxins that poison our ecosystem are some of the causes that lead to the destruction of natural habitats. All this with a direct impact on our species. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, about 41% of all amphibian species and 26% of mammals are in danger of extinction.
“We insist that our calculations most likely underestimate the severity of the extinction crisis , as our goal was to place a realistic lower bound on humanity’s impact on biodiversity,” the authors clarify.
If these species disappeared, so would their benefits for the planet, such as the pollination of crops and wetlands; the loss of biodiversity looms over humanity. However, there is still hope: “ Preventing a true sixth mass extinction will require rapid, largely intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species, and to alleviate pressures on their populations, in particular habitat loss, overexploitation for economic purposes. and climate change ”, say the researchers.
