The “Sixth Extinction” also known as the “Anthropocene extinction” or “Holocene extinction” is an ongoing, sixth mass extinction event occurring after the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events, the Late Devonian extinction, the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
The term “Anthropocene extinction” has been proposed as an extension of the Holocene extinction to emphasize the impact of the spread of human civilization on the environment. The name “Anthropocene” is a combination of anthropo- from anthropos, meaning "human" and -cene from kainos meaning "new" or "recent."
Though there is some debate over the claim the the Anthropocene extinction constitutes a new extinction event, polls of biologists indicate that most consider the Anthropocene extinction real. Numerous studies and papers have suggested that upwards of 70% of biologists acknowledge the existence of the Anthropocene extinction.
There is little consensus as to when the Anthropocene extinction began. Some have suggested that the Anthropocene extinction may have begun as early as when the first modern humans spread out of Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Others have fixed the start point as late as the start of the industrial revolution in 1780.
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One calculation predicted that if the current rate of human disruption of the biosphere continues, one-half of Earth's higher lifeforms will be extinct by the year 2100. At the present time, the rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than the historically typical rate of extinction of life forms on the planet. This means that the rate of extinction in the Anthropocene extinction is 10 to 100 times higher than any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of
In this paper Martin is arguing that late quaternary or near time extinctions where caused by human activity or as he calls it “overkill”. Martin recognizes that there have been many forces that have triggered extinctions in the planet on the past but disagrees with the idea that near time extinctions where caused by some commonly believed causes like climate change, disease or nutrient shortage. He argues that the arrival of humans to different continents, islands and the subsequent excessive hunting, the introduction of diseases and other competitors and predators was the cause of extinction of a great number of species “As our species spread to various continents we wiped out their large
For some people the numbers and facts don’t really matter, they read through Manning’s description of extinction and focus on the conclusion he created. Others will focus blindly on the increased extinction rate and rue the day mankind was created. But, there is one group of people who will see “before human domination” (pg. 1) and lose their scientifically accurate minds. Manning is unknowingly referring to the ratio between the background extinction rate and the actual distinction rate, i.e. what scientist think is the extinction rate right now with humans vs. no humans, and referring to it as if it is two completely different rates at two completely different points in time. Small flaws like these are insignificant to the average reader but comparable to kryptonite to credibility from a scientific audiences view. Throughout the essay, these inaccuracies consistently occur, those who know the law of thermodynamics know is not the same as energy transformation in a food-chain and that the scientific method that you simply can’t make conclusions drawn from two different fields of inaccurately portrayed science based on your opinion and call it
Throughout history arguments and debate have been used to decide the fate of kingdoms, challenge a ruler’s authority or even decided where homes would be built. Without arguments our world would be bland and nothing like it is today. Being able to form a well built argument and use it properly is known as rhetoric. Ancient Romans and Greeks considered rhetoric to be one of the most important skills for students. Even today rhetoric is considered a great feat for all scholars. Two great men who were able to use rhetoric and excel at using it were Cicero and Machiavelli. They both argued in some of their most famous works that at times injustice was defendable. Cicero did this in his piece called The Defense of Injustice. Machiavelli did this in his work called The Prince. Each of these men was from completely different times in history, yet both were able to use rhetoric to help make people support their argument. Although rhetoric has many rules and many different formats one of the most well know and organized format is known as the Toulmin method. With the two pieces of work and using Toulmin’s method of rhetoric we can evaluate and discover who makes the best argument and why.
Human extinction may occur because of many reasons some may include because of how we take care of our planet and what lives on it. Another may be because of a disease or a fungus we may spread to one another and will not be able to gain control over it. Instead if we try to save what is left our species may go even further and we may be able to live longer. Our own comfortable lives and not really affected as they should be because most people do not care what is going on outside of their own lives. They should be more concerned because it does involve them, they are part of the human
Next was extinction which is the largest extinction in history. (Alexander, Chang, Tsai, and Wu, 1998) This was the time of diversification of insects and reptiles, with the expansion of conifers. (Klappenbach,N/A,)
The eradication of species numbers average at a toll close to one hundred percent of earths total living creatures. “It is the Earth's most severe known extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct” (Sahney, and Benton 759). Not only where marine and terrestrial species effected but this catastrophic event is the only recogni...
In, The Fate of the Earth by, Jonathan Schell, he starts with the extinction of dinosaurs then moves onto how it’s not possible to judge on human extinction. He also talks about how the extinction of animals and how we have learned from our mistakes. He states how we live, then we die. And how different catastrophes could kill everyone or how they could slowly become extinct from those catastrophes. He mainly talks about population and how the extinction of human beings and once we are extinct we are done.
Throughout Earth’s history there have been many changes. These changes have consisted of temperature fluctuations, atmospheric differentiations, extinctions of various plant and animal life, etc. Over time everything seems to have evolved in some way form or fashion. However, the Permian Era extinction was different from all the rest. This extinction affected every form of life, but especially the marine life. Researchers have stated that 93-97% of all Earths species went extinct during this period of time. This essay will explain how a once blossoming progressive era turned into Earths most catastrophic event.
Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must be taken immediately!
John McNeill, in his informative book, Something New Under the Sun, he discusses how the twentieth century brought the world into a steady decline. Although the world has improved technology-wise, it has also had a decline that overshadows the improvement we have seen. McNeil goes on to prove that it is humans, with our new technology are the reason behind this fateful decline. The world’s population has positively and negatively affected the twentieth century world by bringing “ecological changes” that will forever change the world(4).
The most significant event of the Cretaceous era came at its end. Nearly 65 million years ago, the second most severe mass extinction in earth’s history occurred. This resulted in the loss of around 80% of species living at the time. Though nowhere near as severe as the end-Permian mass extinction, the end-Cretaceous extinction is the most well known mass extinction event. This is due to the violent event that caused it the extinction, as well as the chapter of earth’s history that it closed: the Dinosaurs. The Cretaceous Event ( often shortened to K-T event) Of the animals that were killed off were the flying reptiles (pterosaurs) and the last few mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, both early marine reptiles. Many mollusks and species of microscopic plankton were killed. Terrestrial plants suffered mass extinction as well. Almost 60% of terrestrial plants were lost. This led to high extinction rates among insect populations, especially insects that were highly specialized to feed on just a few types of plants had it the worst. It took approximately 9 million years for the global insect populations to recover from the Cretaceous extinction. Immediately after the extinction, the earth saw an explosion of short term species who respond well to fire, or other external disturbance. Evidence of the catastrophe comes from a thin rock layer deposited worldwide just after the impact. It is dominated by fossil plants whose descendants recover quickly after fires of other disturbances, such as Fire Weed in Alaska. The causes of the Cretaceous extinction are still being debated by paleontologists. Scientists agree that the main cause of the extinction was a...
Several mass extinctions have occurred during the Earth’s history. The Cretaceous – Tertiary Boundary (K-T) Extinction caused the loss of at least three-quarters of all species known at that time including the dinosaurs. The cause of this mass extinction is a controversial subject among scientists but the fossil evidence of it’s occurrence is abundant.
The term serves as an alternate for other phrases referring to the era of modern man, such as “anthropocene” or “capitolocene,” which Haraway disagrees with. Rather than the ominous implications of the anthropocene and capitalocene, the Chthulucene is precarious, but not yet doomed because it consists of “ongoing multispecies stories and practices.” The concept of the Chthulucene implies a one-ness shared by all beings, human and non-human. By rejecting the anthropocene and capitolocene, Haraway also rejects the notion that dictates define the age we are currently living. “Anthro-“ and “capital-“ place a certain amount of blame on single entities, namely humans and capitalism, but in the rest of her work, Haraway suggests that recognizing unity and networks is ultimately more important than assigning fault. While the other terms seem to identify a cause for the modern age, Haraway’s Chtulucene emphasizes a method of thinking about and living with the present. In Haraway’s view, the Chtulucene is a vital part of reimagining our existence in the world. She goes on to discuss “tentacular thinking” and “making kin” as other aspects that are key to creating a sustainable world. In order to continue existing,
Human extinction also known as doomsday is the inevitable end of humanity which can happen in many different ways, such as natural causes or a consequence of human activity. Some examples of natural causes could be a post-human evolution (not necessarily a doomsday scenario), meteor impact, and climate change which can be caused by increased volcanic activity and solar output. Many possible scenarios of Unnatural Causes from human activity include global nuclear warfare, biowarfare, global warming caused by human activity, pandemic, and resource depletion caused by overpopulation. Another thing that can wipe out, humanity is advanced technology such as advanced artificial intelligence, self-replicating nanobots or biotechnology due to fact that some form of advanced technology could outsmart humans and destroy them.
There are time periods in the history of life on Earth during which exceptionally large numbers of species gone extinct. These extinctions are quite different from the rate of extinction, which occurs even when the diversity of life is increasing. Many species vanished from many ways of mass extinctions and today, almost of all species that have existed on Earth are extinct. Many species extinction risk studies require an accounting of both local and global threats. It is challenging to develop methods to make scientifically sound and unfailing extinction risk duties of species for which is little known. “Between a third to a half of land animal and plant species will face extermination” (Bhattacharya, 2004). The rapid loss of species seen today is estimated by experts to be between thousand and ten thousand times higher than the natural extinction rate. These experts calculate that between 0.01 and 0.1% of all species will become extinct each year. If the low estimate of the number of species out there is true it means that there are around 2 million different species on our planet then that means between two hundred and two thousand extinctions occur every year. But if the upper estimate of species numbers is true it also means that there are a hundred million different species co-existing with us on our planet and between ten thousand and hundred thousand species are becoming extinct each year. Most of our species are considered endangered in our environment through many causes that are leading them towards extinction such as disease, climate and ocean change, and human activity.