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The extinction of animals was man's fault
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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A team of biologists, after studying data on the frequency of extinction of species of animals and plants, stated that some species of animals and plants are already beginning to die out on our planet, and this is already the sixth mass extinction on our planet, which is caused not by natural phenomena, but by human activity.
The experts published the results of their research in one of the scientific journals, which is currently only published in an electronic version.
Scientists noted that if nothing changes in the near future, it will take another million years to restore the extinct biological diversity, while humans are also under threat of complete disappearance from planet Earth.
A group of specialists from the National University of Mexico was headed by the famous ecologist Paul Ehrlich (Stanford University); the experts came to such conclusions after calculating the frequency of extinction of animals inhabiting our planet over the past millions of years; relatively “calm” periods of life were also taken into account.
Experts noted that conservative estimates were specifically used in the calculations – the highest extinction rate during peaceful periods, the lowest extinction rate today, so that colleagues from scientific circles would not have the opportunity to accuse them of alarmism.
According to Ehrlich's group, before humans appeared on earth, two out of ten thousand animal species disappeared from the planet every hundred years. In the 20th century, the numbers increased more than a hundredfold.
In other words, the number of animal species that have disappeared from planet Earth should disappear within ten thousand years, but not within one century.
Experts noted that over the past two centuries, the rate of animal extinction is similar to that observed more than 60 million years ago, when marine reptiles, dinosaurs and pterosaurs began to disappear.
The team of scientists once again emphasized that their calculations may greatly understate the scale of the problem that is observed today. The specialists tried to find the lower limit of the impact that human activity on earth has on the ecological system of our planet and the diversity of animals.
Erlich himself believes that humanity still has time to influence the scale of extinction of flora and fauna, however, the count is not in millennia, not in hundreds of years, and not even in years, with each passing day we are getting closer to the point of no return. According to the ecologist, currently about 40% of amphibians are under threat of extinction and about 1/4 of mammals may disappear from our planet. In order to prevent the sixth extinction of flora and fauna, man must immediately take all measures to strengthen and expand measures to preserve the diversity of animals and plants on earth that are under threat of complete extinction. People must not deprive endangered species of animals of their natural habitat (stop uncontrolled deforestation, pollution of the world's oceans, rivers, etc.), take measures to improve the climate situation.