Extinction: When the Last of a Species Breathes No More

We are now entering the Sixth Great Extinction. This event, termed by scientists the Anthropocene Mass Extinction, is fueled entirely by humanity’s reckless and greedy assault on the living world. Threats such as habitat loss, climate change, and introduced species are putting much of life on Earth at risk of extinction. Scientists at the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity have estimated that 150 species go extinct per day, adding up to nearly 55,000 extinctions per year and more than half a million every decade. The five great extinctions of the past were brought about by terrible natural forces from glaciation to asteroids and volcanism. But this time, warns the CBD report, the sole cause “[is] human activities.”

Extinction is when the last of a species dies and the species is lost forever, the number of species on Earth goes down by one.