We really are a spectacularly careless and arrogant species, Humans. For too long we have allowed ourselves to live in denial of the damage we cause to our environments and now the planet is careering towards it’s sixth mass extinction.

Fine, it is true, humans are not the cause of the extinction per say, but we have unquestionably sped up the rate of demise for hundreds and thousands of other species.

Species are now disappearing from Earth about 10 times faster than biologists had believed, said study lead author noted biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University.[…] 

Numerous factors are combining to make species disappear much faster than before, said Pimm and co-author Clinton Jenkins of the Institute of Ecological Research in Brazil. But the No. 1 issue is habitat loss. Species are finding no place to live as more places are built up and altered by humans.

While the results of this study are pretty dire, the authors say there is in fact hope if we can remove our heads from our rears for long enough to give a damn and take action – alright, they didn’t really say it that way but that is the fact of the matter, no?

At the risk of being the bearer of doom and gloom for an otherwise gorgeous Friday morning, the mass extinction is almost certainly inevitable. Whether or not humans can survive it and what else we haven’t killed off by then, remains to be seen.

[Source: CourierPress]