The Sixth Extinction

A every interesting article by Michael Novacek, senior vice president and provost of the American Museum of Natural History, appeared in the Washington Post this Sunday titled The Sixth Extinction: It Happened To Him. Its Happening To You.. The article begins discussing the five other mass extinctions and the last of which occurred about 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs and 70% of all other species. According to Novacek, we are now experiencing what scientists predicted over a decade ago...the sixth extinction event.

In the article, Novacek notes that in 2007 of 41,415 species that were assessed by the IUCN (http://www.iucn.org/) 39% or 16,309 species were threatened with extinction. That is an alarming number considering that the UNEP estimates that 1,750,000 species are known and 14,000,000 are actually out there (http://www.unep.org/GEO/geo3/english/220.htm) and of that less than 2% and 0.3% (respectively) are actually assessed.

In simpler terms, Novacek says that the IUCN numbers show that one in three amphibians, one quarter of the world's pines (and coniferous trees), one in eight birds, and one in four mammals are threatened with extinction.

The numbers are alarming for the mass extinction event that is already shown to be taking place, but as Novacek points out "We are our own asteroids. Still, the primary concern here is the future welfare of us and our children. Assuming that we survive the current mass extinction event, won't we do okay? The disappearance of more than a few species is regrettable, but we can't compromise an ever-expanding population and a global economy whose collapse would leave billions to starve. This dismissal, however, ignores an essential fact about all those species: They live together in tightly networked ecosystems responsible for providing the habitats in which even we humans thrive. Pollination of flowers by diverse species of wild bees, wasps, butterflies and other insects, not just managed honeybees, accounts for more than 30 percent of all food production that humans depend upon."

I couldn't put it into better words. "The primary concern here is the future welfare of us and our children..."

Novacek echos what Our Task is all about. We need to find a way to carry out our goal--a mutually sustaining relationship between humans and the Earth.

The article continues to say what the world will be like after the mass extinction event takes place. Novacek says that the 21st century will mark the end for many species that are threatened with extinction now and that the devastated ecosystems will allow more invasive pests and weeds to take over and destroy them further. He says this is particularly dangerous because we haven't built up a biological resistance to all of these different pests and weeds.

He also says that people do care about what is happening and that recent surveys correlate with that fact. One downfall he says is that all the hype with climate change is taking attention away from other issues including deforestation and water pollution. To quote Novacek, "Global warming is of course a hugely important issue. But it is the double whammy of climate change combined with fragmented, degraded natural habitats -- not climate change alone -- that is the real threat to many populations, species and ecosystems, including human populations marginalized and displaced by those combined forces."

This is also what OT is all about. We want a mutually sustaining relationship between humans and the Earth. We want to draw attention to many different environmental important issues including global warming, climate change, deforestation, water pollution...etc.

The article ends by listing things that people are doing including protecting certain species through conservation, controlling emissions, and green building.

One of the last things Novacek says is "The first step in dealing with the problem is recognizing it for what it is."

That is my challenge to you, OT blog, let us, together, find out a way to help in this first step...helping people recognize it for what it is...and I believe we are well on our way to doing so!