By Anthony Marcusa / Source: Ecorazzi

Animals are dying out at a rate over 100 times the normal, say scientists, as humans have polluted and destroyed habitats around the Earth. Since 1500, such man-made change and destruction has killed off 77 species of mammals, 140 different birds, and 34 amphibians. Since 1900, almost 500 vertebrates have gone extinct, a time frame that in the past would have expected nine species to die out.

“Recent extinction rates are unprecedented in human history and highly unusual in Earth’s history,” reads a study published in the journal Science Advances. “Our global society has started to destroy species of other organisms at an accelerating rate, initiating a mass extinction episode unparalleled for 65 million years.”

The five previous extinctions were set in motion by natural disasters, such as asteroids impacting the planet, or volcanic eruptions. The last took place about 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs. This one, however, has been started and accelerated by humans.

“The number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken … between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear,” the study reports. “These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already underway.”

If that is in fact true – the study made this assertion “without any significant doubt” – it spells as much trouble as it sounds. Each mass extinction wiped the planet off up 96% of its species. What’s more, the study stressed that the scientists used a conservative approach, and that “our calculations very likely underestimate the severity of the extinction crisis.”

All that stated, however, researcher say there is still some hope to avert disaster. Avoiding a sixth extinction will “require rapid, greatly intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species and to alleviate pressures on their populations — notably habitat loss, overexploitation for economic gain and climate change.”

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