Study Warns Next Mass Extinction Under Way

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences argues that the Earth is already undergoing its sixth mass extinction and that it is "rapidly accelerating."

Researchers warn that animal species were going extinct 35 times faster than the average rate of the last million years, according to the study, which was published Monday.

The human role was also noted.

Researchers deduced that animal species lost in the last 500 years would have taken around 18,000 years to go extinct without human habitat destruction, illegal trade, and climate disruption.

Gerardo Ceballos, a professor at the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who led the study, told Axios that a mass loss of animal species could have ramifications for humans.

"There is life on the planet because of the plants and animals — wild plants and animals — and the ecosystems that they form," Ceballos said, noting the way humans get food, the sustainability of the atmosphere, and how humans get medicines.

"We're losing the capability of the planet to maintain life in general and to maintain human life in particular," he added.

Ceballos and his team of researchers urge "immediate political, economic, and social efforts of an unprecedented scale" to prevent more permanent impacts.

Still, some scientists are skeptical that the current losses constitute a mass extinction.

"We have no idea how to identify a sixth mass extinction," Stuart Pimm, the Doris Duke chair of conservation ecology at Duke University, informed the outlet.

"When you start saying, Well, how does this compare to what happened 65 million years ago? That's when it gets really difficult," the professor explained.

Most scientists believe the last mass extinction occurred after an asteroid hit roughly 66 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs and giving rise to the current age of mammals — of which humans are one.

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