The Sixth Extinction

"We can continue on the path towards our own extinction,
or we can modify our behavior…"

The Sixth Extinction
by Niles Eldredge

PROLOGUE:

Some 100,000 years ago, the earth gave birth to a new specie in Africa, labeled by our scientists as the “homo sapiens”. A few years later, they began migrating out of their place of origin. Since then, they have encountered other species of animals, which they found to be less intelligent than them. Because of this advantage, the new breed of animals easily gained their position on the top of the food chain beating the rest in hunting and killing.

The homo sapiens had great skill for they easily butchered mammoths, mastodons, and elephant birds into extinction. They beat the Neanderthal men, who were earlier versions of the homo sapiens specie, in the ecological competition and sent them into hiding. All animals unprepared of their presence were easily sent to oblivion, while others learned to adapt and survived the massacre. Humans have made themselves known to the plant and animal kingdom.

This animal, who walks on two feet, found himself to be creative and innovative. He later invented the process of agriculture to benefit no other than himself. He decided what plants were considered “useful” and what plants where considered a “weed”. He also decided what animals were “helpful” and what were “pests”. This paradigm of thinking, of deciding what was useful and what was not, was a decision to be above the rules of ecology, to stay outside the ecosystem. Humans have realized their power over nature.

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There earth has actually gone through five global biotic turnovers. These turnovers involve one of the following: drastic climate and global temperature changes, extinction and evolution of existing species, birth of new species, tectonic movement and volcanic mayhem. It’s as if the earth continuously renews and evolves itself. This fact is consistent with the premise that nature is, indeed, in a flux of constant change and movement. And the pressing matter is the change the earth is heading towards in 10 to 20 years.

In 1993 Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson discovered that the earth has been loosing three species every hour. That is 30,000 different kinds of species every year. The mass extinction heightened as industrialization and human population continued to increase. Now, because of climate and temperature changes, the extinction has reached an alarming level as it began affecting animals in the upper levels of the food chain. This only means that the earth’s biodiversity is under threat. Without biodiversity, the ecosystem is unstable, vulnerable to a collapse.

Scientists are pointing the fact that we are heading towards another global turnover. This “change” is said to exceed the magnitude of events of its predecessors. They also say that it is the first time in the earth’s life history that a global turnover will be caused by a single animal specie.

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Sources:
THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION: A Status Report
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update35.htm
Janet Larsen

The Sixth Extinction
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html
By Niles Eldredge

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