Earth on the Midst of Sixth Major Extinction Crisis; Scientists Identify Key Areas That Need Protection

Earth on the Midst of Sixth Major Extinction Crisis; Scientists Identify Key Areas That Need Protection
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Junaidi Hanafiah)

The Earth is on the verge of extinction, and scientists are calling on the public to take action to save the planet's endangered species.

Earth on the Midst of Six Great Extinction

The bulk of the planet's endangered species depend on how humans protect certain regions of the Earth, as determined by researchers in a new study. They believe safeguarding these critical biodiversity hotspots could be a practical and economical means of maintaining species on Earth.

Preserving these 16,825 locations, which account for 1.22 percent of the planet's geographical area, is essential to averting "the sixth great extinction of life on Earth."

Seventy-six percent of the sites are found in tropical rainforests, mainly in five countries: Madagascar, Brazil, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Colombia.

According to study author Eric Dinerstein, a senior expert in biodiversity at NGO RESOLVE, we are currently experiencing the sixth major extinction crisis in Earth's history, but the first one linked to human activity. The new study offers an affordable, doable blueprint for preventing more species extinctions. It focuses on 1.2 percent of the Earth's terrestrial area where rare species are concentrated, but their habitats are not protected.

To calculate how much of the Earth's terrestrial surface remained unprotected, the researchers used six globally cited data sets that map out the distributions of rare and threatened vertebrates, including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and plants. They did this by superimposing the distributions of the vertebrates with the current extent of protected areas. Then, using a filter based on satellite data, they eliminated non-habitat areas from the unprotected polygons.

He added that protecting the sites could save over 4,700 species, including millions of species that experts know so little about and exist in the same unprotected habitats.

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Humans to Blame For Sixth Extinction?

A report released earlier this year revealed that over 50 percent of the migratory species are experiencing a population decline. Additionally, 22 percent are already threatened with extinction.

Unsustainable human activities are reportedly to blame for this. Overexploitation and habitat loss are among the most significant threats.

Five mass extinctions have already happened on Earth. Due to self-extinction, almost 98% of all plants and animals have vanished from the planet.

Extinction is a natural occurrence. The five mass extinctions that previously occurred were -- the Ordovician-Silurian, the Late Devonian, the Permian-Triassic, the Triassic-Jurassic, and the K-Pg.

However, experts assert that human activity, though not exclusively the unsustainable use of land, water, and energy, as well as climate change, is the primary cause of the sixth mass extinction, which is happening right now. This is in stark contrast to the first five extinctions that were brought on by natural causes.

Currently, 40 percent of the land is used for agriculture, which uses 70% of the freshwater on the planet. Additionally, it is to blame for 90% of the global deforestation, which drastically changes the ecosystems of the organisms that live there, with disastrous results.