Why is the sixth mass extinction coming?

The birth of the earth has a history of 4.6 billion years, in this long process of development, the earth's ecological environment is also constantly changing, in the history of the earth has experienced five mass extinction events, the occurrence of these events have made the earth's ecological environment a life.

The five mass extinction events of the earth were the Ordovician mass extinction, the Devonian mass extinction, the Permian mass extinction, the Triassic mass extinction and the Cretaceous mass extinction, and the dinosaurs could not escape the last mass extinction.

Later, the birth of human beings also had a serious impact on the earth's ecological environment, when human beings developed the industrial revolution, the earth's atmospheric environment began to be polluted, and now human beings still have a huge demand for the earth's resources, and the earth's ecological environment has gradually collapsed under the continuous exploitation of human beings.

At present, the global warming problem of the earth is intensifying, under the development of global warming, the earth's glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate, and at the same time, the sea level is also rising rapidly, which leads to the earth's land area is being swallowed up by the ocean step by step, and the organisms on the earth are facing extinction due to the difficulty in adapting to the earth's environmental changes.

Scientists estimate that over the past 200 million years, an average of 90 species of vertebrates have gone extinct every 100 years, and an average of one higher plant has gone extinct every 27 years. Under human interference, the rate of extinction of birds and mammals has increased by 100-1000 times, and research data show that in the 100 years of the twentieth century, a total of 23 species of mammals have been extinct in the world, and in recent decades, billions of animals have disappeared, and many common and rare species have disappeared.

Based on these signs on Earth, scientists have warned that the Earth's environment is very dangerous and that the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is imminent. Scientific reports that more than 500 species of land animals have been found to be on the verge of extinction are signs that the Earth's ecosystems are already in serious trouble, and that humans are likely to pay a terrible price for them.

In the future, the world's population will continue to develop, human beings really have to be careful, we must remain vigilant, improve the earth's ecological environment, only in this way will the earth's ecological environment not continue to deteriorate, and human beings can better survive on the earth. So what else do you want to say about this? Everyone is welcome to leave a message in the comment area.

This is because humans occupy the dominant position on the earth, and also occupy the vast majority of the land area, which leaves less space for animals to live, and animals will become extinct without food. Coupled with the fact that various heavy industry pollution also affects the lifespan of animals.

Because human activities have caused great harm to the environment in which organisms live, many organisms cannot survive and are in danger of extinction.

Because now due to the destruction of the natural environment by humans, extreme weather is becoming more and more common.

In the last 100 million years or so, there have been five mass extinctions. The largest occurred 100 million years ago, annihilating 95% of all species. Throughout the past and present, scientists are taking lessons from previous mass extinctions for the present:

Living things are disappearing at an alarming rate, mainly due to environmental changes caused by humans. Many scientists believe that the Earth is experiencing a sub-mass extinction. Each previous mass extinction occurred when the Earth's carbon cycle was disrupted.

The carbon cycle is a natural process in which cellular respiration (the release of carbon dioxide) and photosynthesis (the uptake of carbon dioxide by plants) are interlinked. Today, humans are releasing carbon dioxide into the environment at an alarming rate.

<>According to a new article published in Science Advances, the increase in carbon dioxide in the oceans, home to most of the planet's plants and animals, could trigger mass extinctions similar to those seen in ancient times. This article puts the increase at 310 billion tons. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we will reach that number by 2100, said lead author Daniel Rothman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The situation in the rest of the world is agnostic.

Whereas previous mass extinction processes lasted tens or even millions of years, we are now in a period of change that lasts at most a few hundred years, so it is difficult to compare. Many experts claim that the Earth is experiencing a sixth mass extinction, but this is still one"Scientific issues", said David Rothman, a professor of geophysics in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. He explained that once our planet crosses the threshold he outlined in **, quantitative change leads to qualitative change.

These changes are linked to previous mass extinctions on Earth.

"Rothman said"One of the striking things about the history of life and the carbon cycle is that whenever one big event happens, the other also happens. While each mass extinction is clearly characterized by a disruption of the carbon cycle, there is also evidence that at other times in Earth's history, the carbon cycle was disrupted, while most organisms did not become extinct.

The mass extinction is not something sensational, and the most familiar mass extinction we are probably with is the last dinosaur. There have been five mass extinctions in total, and there are phenomena that suggest that we may have entered the sixth mass extinction period.

These mass extinctions are the Ordovician mass extinction 100 million years ago, when more than 85% of species disappeared; The Devonian mass extinction 100 million years ago, this time mainly occurred in the ocean; The third mass extinction was at the end of the Permian period hundreds of millions of years ago; The fourth mass extinction occurred at the end of the Triassic period 200 million years ago, when a large number of reptiles were devastated, and the dinosaur family also took the opportunity to "ascend to the top"; The fifth time was 65 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers hit the Yucatan Peninsula in present-day North America in Mexico at high speed, which led to the extinction of many species on Earth, the most representative of which is the dinosaur family. The sixth extinction is the time period we are in, some think.

Judging from the time interval of the five mass extinctions,Every 100 million years, there will be a biological extinction event, and 65 million years have passed since the extinction of the dinosaurs, so will there be a new round of extinction on the earth, that is, the sixth mass extinction event?

There is data to show thatOver the past 200 million years, an average of 90 vertebrate species have gone extinct every 100 years, and an average of one higher plant has gone extinct every 27 years。However, the interference of human beings makes the worldBirdswithThe rate of extinction of mammals has increased by a factor of 100-1,000。Since 1600, 724 species of higher animals and plants have been recorded extinct, and the vast majority of species have become extinct before humans knew it.

Rough estimates show that in 400 years, the area of living organisms has shrunk by 90 per cent and the number of species has been halved, with the impact of species loss being more pronounced by the deforestation of tropical rainforests. It is estimated that species extinctions caused by deforestation in the world from 1990 to 2020 will reduce the number of species in the world by 5%-15%, or 50-150 per day. InThe last 400 years, the whole world is extinctMammals58 species, about one species becomes extinct every seven years, which is faster than the normal fossil record7-70 times higher；In100 years of the twentieth century, the whole world is extinctMammals23 species, about one species becomes extinct every four years, which is faster than the normal fossil record13-135 times higher

This pile of data shows that the rate of extinction has indeed accelerated, and some experts support the theory of a sixth extinction. In any case, species extinction is accelerating, and this has a lot to do with human activity. It's still the same sentence,Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility