The Planet Earth: The Cause Of Mass Extinctions

The planet earth is a complex environment in which various organisms have cycled through their time of existence for millions of years. All species that have lived are destined for extinction at some point in time, and this is a natural process and cycle. Mass extinctions are this process at an extreme rate. In fact, many scientists today suspect that earth is on the verge of the sixth mass extinction. In order to better analyze this, one must understand what a mass extinction is, the history of mass extinctions, the evidence that earth is nearing the next extinction, and how humans are affecting the extinction. Mass extinctions are a rare and extreme event on earth. At its basics, it is the extinction of a large percentage of the species

Many scientists have declared that humans are the cause of the next mass extinction. One way that humans have pushed the earth to the next mass extinction is through the process of global warming. Scientists spent time studying the mechanisms of climate change on ecosystems and concluded that there is a major link between these two (7). Overpopulation of humans is one of the main causes of the higher extinction rates (1, 2). It causes humans to invade other habitats that other organisms used to dominate. Also, it results in a lack of resources for the species. This overpopulation also causes overconsumption by humans on earth (1). The overconsumption results in too much predation on other species for food or for pleasure. Many other species provide resources that humans want for various forms of pleasure, so they are killed or manipulated as an industry. There are some areas that had little to no human influence like the protected national park only a short distance from Bangkok, Thailand. This area was very healthy the first few trips there, but, as humans have slowly invaded this area, the scientists have been able to notice the declining health of this forest. All of these things point to the direct link between humans and the next mass