The end of the world Is the Earth preparing for a sixth mass extinction?

Recent studies indicate that the Earth is about to witness a sixth extinction that will destroy the ecosystem and biological systems on the planet's surface. Not only that, but humans are expected to be among the first victims unless they hurry to put an end to their wrong practices that are leading the world to the end.

In light of the crises we live in on the planet, scientists recently sounded a new alarm warning that our world on Earth is about to enter a new mass extinction phase, the devastating consequences of which may wipe out the human race completely 100 years from now.

In contrast to the five extinctions that were subjected to the ecosystem and biological systems on the surface of our planet, the sixth extinction is expected, which scientists do not stop warning of its devastating consequences that may end life completely on the only vibrant planet within the planets of the solar system, emphasizing at the same time that we may be able to stop or limit it. It is dangerous if we succeed in addressing climate change and reducing carbon emissions, as well as preserving biodiversity on Earth.

For this reason, human efforts have been focused in recent years on finding life in space and searching for planets that are relatively suitable for incubating a type of life, and serving as an alternative plan for humanity to challenge the mass extinction that awaits it and avoid the fate that befell the dinosaurs in the fifth and final extinction that the Earth witnessed about 66 million years ago. year.

Scientists are sounding the alarm

Warnings are issued by biologists that warn and confirm that the planet has entered the sixth mass extinction era, as a result of what some have described as "biological extermination" due to the sharp decline in biodiversity on Earth during the past few decades.

For her part, environmental journalist Elizabeth Colbert, in her popular book The Sixth Extinction, published numerous reports revealing that we have caused a mass death of biodiversity on Earth's surface through our reckless and irresponsible activities. Noting that the pace of biological extermination is still accelerating, which would hasten the expected extinction.

In addition to the biological extermination caused by human activities, MIT geophysicist Daniel Rothman claimed in a study published in Science Advances that climate change and massive carbon emissions are among the most important reasons that we may enter the sixth extinction era. Rothman pointed out that our Earth may enter an "unknown area" by the year 2100, which will lead to a human and environmental catastrophe.

Earth and the series of extinctions

In the past 540 million years, the planet, whose life on its surface and in its waters exceeded 3.7 billion years, has witnessed five mass extinctions that coincided with the massive extermination of animal and plant species all over the world, and while the causes of four of them are due to processes that reversed the natural circulation of carbon Across the atmosphere and oceans, the cause of the last extinction, dubbed the "Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction", was caused by an asteroid that struck Earth off the coast of Mexico about 66 million years ago.

Scientists estimated that the five mass extinctions at the time caused the genocide of about 99% of animal and plant life forms on the surface of our planet, while the fifth and final extinction caused the end of the life of the dinosaurs, in addition to the elimination of 75% of the lives that were left on the surface of the planet.

Mass extinction is a term used in biology for the end of an organism or group of organisms (species). Thus, extinction becomes certain when there are no remaining individuals capable of reproducing and creating a new generation.

In 2016, a group of scientists published a report in which they confirmed that the number of species that have lived on Earth since the beginning of life on it nearly 3.7 billion years ago exceeded one trillion species, while the documented percentage of them does not exceed one hundred thousand.

Human influences

Species are going extinct on Earth 100 times faster than they would have gone without human influence. While the number of wild animals has more than halved since 1970, the Earth has seen the number of people on its surface double. Today, about 7.9 billion people live on Earth and the number is still increasing, and according to the United Nations, unless we take the necessary measures, our number is likely to increase by 30% by 2050, and about 11 billion more people by 2100.

In order to understand the upcoming threat and identify its main causes and drivers, a study published in the journal “PLOS Biology” on March 12, 2019, prepared by the researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia James Allan and his team, revealed that human threats and destructive activities such as grazing, hunting, cultural expansion and industry are among the most prominent reasons severely limiting the flourishing of many species and consequently the loss of global biodiversity that will lead the planet towards a sixth mass extinction.

And in the study conducted by Daniel Rothman, he found that climate change is pushing our oceans to the brink of collapse, which puts us humans at the forefront of the causes of the demise of life on Earth. "Human activity has the potential to disrupt the global carbon cycle and cause an environmental catastrophe that may last 10,000 years," he added.