New study suggests world is on the brink of its sixth great extinction event

WASHINGTON (AP) — Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene, and the world is on the brink of a sixth great extinction, a new study says.

The study looks at past and present rates of extinction and finds a lower rate in the past than scientists had thought. Species are now disappearing from Earth about 10 times faster than biologists had believed, said the study's lead author, biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University.

"We are on the verge of the sixth extinction," Pimm said from research at the Dry Tortugas. "Whether we avoid it or not will depend on our actions."

The work, published Thursday by the journal Science, was hailed as a landmark study by outside experts.

Pimm's study focused on the rate, not the number, of species disappearing from Earth. It calculated a "death rate" of how many species become extinct each year out of 1 million species.

In 1995, Pimm found that the pre-human rate of extinctions on Earth was about 1. But taking into account new research, Pimm and his colleagues refined that background rate to about 0.1.

Now, that death rate is about 100 to 1,000, Pimm said.

eddie wrote:HAHAHAHAHA think this was supposed to be an intellectual thread about food shortage and world harvest etc etc
Instead, it's a bunch of kids not eating their greens!!  ://?roflmao?/:

eddie wrote:HAHAHAHAHA think this was supposed to be an intellectual thread about food shortage and world harvest etc etc
Instead, it's a bunch of kids not eating their greens!!  ://?roflmao?/:

harvesmom wrote:
........ I don't understand how anyone can work out how fast plants and animals became extinct before Humans came onto the scene   

I am worried about our bluebells though   

Tesstacious wrote:Glad you're all amused.  You won't be when ther's not enough food to go around, or what there is will cost more than most can afford....

just sayin'

Joy Division wrote:

Tesstacious wrote:Glad you're all amused.  You won't be when ther's not enough food to go around, or what there is will cost more than most can afford....

just sayin'

..you'll no be here to see it Tess, and there is nothing you yourself can do about it...

Sorry for stating the obvious   

Tesstacious wrote:Glad you're all amused.  You won't be when ther's not enough food to go around, or what there is will cost more than most can afford....

just sayin'

Tesstacious wrote:

Joy Division wrote:


..you'll no be here to see it Tess, and there is nothing you yourself can do about it...

Sorry for stating the obvious   

How do you know that?  Once the plankton disappears it's a short step to having no fish....

I'll just say two words.... Soylent Green.