Animals :: Environment, Natural Disasters, Extinction

We all canvas the extinguishing of dinosaurs in middle school. We k at present that, two hundred litre million years ago, more than 90% of the planet species became extinct. There dedicate been five major mass extinctions during the life history of planet earth. Scientists now agree that we argon experiencing a sixth major extinction. The big contrast between the older events and now is, unlike earlier extinctions, this one results from the engage of a single species, Homo sapiens. We are relentlessly taking everywhere the planet, laying it to waste and eliminating most of our fellow species (Coyne 1). We should care about this celluloid extinction for a lot of reasons, including the interconnectedness of life, our moral obligation to induce care of our planet, and even economic factors. In the past, extinctions were caused by natural disasters, such(prenominal) as volcanic eruptions during the Permian period, and asteroid impact during the Cretaceous extinction. These major events caused orbiculate warming by increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, and shut megabucks photosynthesis by blocking sunlight with a huge cloud of debris. both(prenominal) of these catastrophes altered the Earths climate radically, which caused the extinctions (Campbell 521-522). The current extinction is not being caused by natural factors, but by us. Rates of species extinction occupy increased rapidly since the early Holocene epoch, chiefly payable to activities of mankind further acceleration of extinction rates began approximately 1600 AD, with the onset of speed human population growth and expanded scope of agriculture (Hogan 1). We have caused this destruction by all overfishing/hunting, destroying habitats, increasing global warming with fossil fuels and pollution, and a general disregard for the rest of the life on Earth (Coyne 1). For more years it was thought that humans had hunted the Wooly Mammoth to extinction. It has been launch that the wooly mamm oth went extinct primarily because of habitat loss due to changes in temperature, while human hunting acted as the final shuck (Climate Change and Human Hunting Combine To Drive The befuddled Mammoth Extinct 1). Animals have been hunted for food, trophies, medicines, and souvenirs. Many of the endangered species are targets, such as the Chinese tiger, which has been hunted for medical use over the last 1000 years (Hogan 3). Overfishing has caused the populations of large fish to be completely 10% of the levels found in 1950.