6th Extinction Species

As it stands now, the world is facing a 6th extinction event. Humans are creating an overpopulated earth, and are therefore killing off a number of species because we need more land and more resources that would normally be used by other species. Because we are becoming more populated as a planet, we are also creating more pollution and more destruction as time continues on.

We have killed off several plants, animals and ecosystems that are important for survival. In a review published in the Conservation Biology, it was highlighted that the destruction and degradation of the ecosystems as the main threat. Australia is currently facing half of their wooded areas and forests becoming extinct. "Around 70% of the remaining forest has been damaged by logging and loss of habitats is behind 80%"

With the statistics worldwide, humans are the root cause of the 6th extinction. We are becoming more and more dependent upon land, and by destroying the forests, and upsetting the delicate ecosystems contained within those forests, we face a potential threat of wiping out the human race entirely.

Extinction in the past were mainly caused by physical events that were outside of the normal climate and physical disturbances. The first one was recorded as a climate change of the great "big freeze". Mass extinction took place that caused many changes to aquatic life and land. The second was near the end of the Devonian period, and may or may not have been a result of climate change. The Permian period had a complex amount of climate change which resulted in the plate tectonic movements and resulted in several changes. The end of the Triassic period, more known as when dinosaurs roamed the earth, extinction took place. And, finally, the most recent was the during the end of the cretaceous period where the remainder of the dinosaur species were completely wiped out as well as many other species. In most habitats fossils have recorded this period and could be explained by the rapid movement between Earth and a possible cometary event.

The likelihood of a sixth extinction is very possible as when human life first emerged, we created an impact upon the earth that has a direct disruption to the Earth's ecosystems. We are bringing massive changes to our environment as we continue to build roads, buildings, and create a civilized culture among these systems. The invention of agriculture has also impacted the results of the sixth extinction and we live outside of nature instead of within it.

Combined with mass population rates and our very need of survival, we are fueling the speed of when this extinction will take place and how quickly. Humans are the reason for the next extinction.

II.

Climate change has had a direct result in the 5 extinctions in the past. The Ordovician extinction was likely from glaciations. Marine life and their habitats changed due