Article Title: On the Termination of Species
Author: W. Wayt Gibbs
I didn't know that so many species have disappeared because of us until reading this article. We need to do something about it. Habitat loss is one of the top causes of species extinction and we are causing it because of all the land we're clearing to make room for houses and factories. Also, the entire ecosystem will fall if the keystone species is removed. That has happened before because we are either hunting that species or removing its food source. We humans have caused species extinction so if we have that much power, we can change it.
Author: W. Wayt Gibbs
- The pace at which species vanish accelerated 1,000 times than what is was before humans showed up.
- Harvard University biologist E.O. Wilson estimates than between 1 and 10 percent of species are extinguished each decade, at least 27,000 a year.
- To know whether a mass extinction is upon us, we need to know 3 things: Natural (background) extinction rate, current rate, and whether the pace of extinction is steady or changing.
- The assumption that plants, mammals, insects and marine invertebrates all exist for about the same time is false.
- Fewer than 4% of all species that ever live are preserved as fossils.
- Over the past 200 years, the rate of loss among mammal species has been 120 times higher than natural.
- Out of 10 million species, 25,000 are expected to evaporate annually.
- The entire ecosystem will fall once the keystone species is removed.
- Species that can not coexist with human land use tend to die out.
I didn't know that so many species have disappeared because of us until reading this article. We need to do something about it. Habitat loss is one of the top causes of species extinction and we are causing it because of all the land we're clearing to make room for houses and factories. Also, the entire ecosystem will fall if the keystone species is removed. That has happened before because we are either hunting that species or removing its food source. We humans have caused species extinction so if we have that much power, we can change it.