Saturday, June 20, 2015
MADRID, SPAIN .- The fifth mass extinction occurred 66 million years ago killed the dinosaurs, now experts have sounded the alarm: “there is no doubt we are entering a mass extinction”, the sixth, and this threatens human existence.
The world will lose, in the arc of three generations, many of the benefits of biodiversity, says Professor of Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and one of the study authors Paul Ehrlich, who warned that “we are sawing off the branch on which we sit.”
Experts from the universities of Stanford, Autonomous University of Mexico and Florida are asking, in a study published today in Science Advances, take “swift action” to preserve endangered species, their populations and habitats, and warn that the “window of opportunity” to do “is closing rapidly”
The study shows, “without any significant doubt that we are entering the sixth major mass extinction” Ehrlich warned, according to a Stanford University.
Scientists agree that extinction rates have reached unprecedented levels since the demise of the dinosaurs, but some have questioned that theory to think that previous estimates rested on assumptions that overestimated the level of the crisis.
The new study indicates that even with the most conservative estimates, the species on our planet are disappearing a hundred times faster than what would be normal in a period between mass extinctions-what is known as ” background rate “-.
“If we let this situation continue, life could take many millions of years to recover, and our species could disappear soon,” said Gerardo Ceballos of the Autonomous University of Mexico.
In the case of vertebrates, which is the group with the most reliable data and fossils, the researchers wondered if even the lowest estimates of the difference between rates Current background and still justify the conclusion that people are rushing “a global spasm of biodiversity loss” and the answer is “a definite yes.”
“We insist that our estimates may well underestimate the severity of the extinction crisis, because our goal was to set a realistic lower limit the impact of mankind on biodiversity”, experts in its report.
An ever-growing human population, per capita consumption and economic inequality have altered or destroyed natural habitats.
The clearing of land for agriculture, forestry, the introduction of invasive species, CO2 emissions that lead to climate change and ocean acidification, toxins and poisons that disrupt ecosystems The list of attacks is long.
Currently, the specter of extinction hangs over 41% of amphibian species and 26% of the mammals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
“Around the world there are examples of species that are basically living dead,” said Ehrlich.
As species disappear, so do the roles as crop pollination by bees.
Despite the bleak picture drawn by the report, there is a way forward, experts say.
“Real Avoid sixth mass extinction will require large, fast and intense efforts to conserve endangered species and relieve the pressure on their populations, especially preventing habitat loss, overexploitation and economic purposes climate change, “they said.
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