Mass Sixth Extinction and How it is Unnatural Essays - Biology

Mass Sixth Extinction and How it is Unnatural After roughly 3.5 billion years of evolution, a vanishing of it all is rapidly approaching. The Earth has seen such a calamitous mass extinction events before. In the last approximate 540 million years; the Earth has seen five major mass extinctions. These occurrences are so extraordinary that they are known as the "Big Five." However, this period, the Holocene Era, may soon be known as the Earth's "sixth mass extinction". The Holocene extinction is in progress and it is said that it will be unlike any other mass extinction. Opposing all the previous extinctions that have been driven by natural environmental changes or catastrophic asteroid impacts, the Holocene extinction will be linked to biodiversity loss due to human action.Whether people believe that we are facing a mass extinction at this time or not, the fact that the Earths biodiversity loss is unquestionable. Since the year 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct. Studies propose the lingering terrest rial vertebrate populations that survived the extinctions have revealed a twenty-five percent average deterioration in abundance. All of this data and decline are linked to humans. Earth's biodiversity involves all the varieties of plants, animals, and other living things in the world. All that lives in the Earth's biodiversity is part of the network of life. From every species of foliage and every creature on Earth, each have a place and plays a dynamic part in the circle of life. Plants, animals, and insects all interrelate and depend upon one another for what each offer, such as food, housing, oxygen, and soil enrichment. However, humans are over using resources, destroying habitats, familiarizing non-native species, scattering pathogens, slaughter species directly, and shifting global climate. All of these things, including several more, are now instigating the sixth mass extinction through humans' violations on the Earth's biodiversity. The major stimulus of Earth's ongoing ha rm of biodiversity is overpopulation. Currently, there are over seven billion people on Earth, and roughly 227,000 are added daily. Subsequently, with a rising population means an increasing need for resources to accommodate the inhabitants. What Is Biodiversity states that "Humans annually consume forty-two percent of the Earth's terrestrial net primary productivity, thirty percent of its marine net primary productivity, and fifty percent of its fresh water. Additionally, "Forty percent of the planet's land is devoted to human food production and fifty percent of the planet's land mass has been transformed for human use." While the human population is budding, the other species are vanishing 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than the ordinary amount. Earth's aquatic biodiversity and water structure is also suffering due to the current loss of biodiversity. Earth's oceans are the world's main source of food. However, over the last 60 years the stock of large fish has dropped by ninety pe rcent. Around 1.2 billion people consume fish as their main source of protein. Over fishing is the main cause in the sharp drop in numbers of fish. In fact, Lee and Safina states, "Long-line fishing vessels deploys approximately 1.4 billion hooks a year, and trawling vessels cast nets with openings up to the size of 4 football fields." The issues confronting aquatic biodiversity is also the same problem distressing land dwelling species biodiversity. If a species' population is depleted to low points that the species' part as prey, predator, and/or competitor is affected; it is extremely harmful and distresses the whole ecosystem. Fundamentally, all the species living in the same bionetwork will become naturally or functionally extinct; including to both marine and earthly life. The reason is because plummeting competition and/or predation, permits additional species to become more dominant in the ecosystem. Therefore, this disturbs the usual stability of numerical and practical ass ociations between species in an ecosystem. The overpopulation of humans, brings issues that affect biodiversity negatively. Human habitats grow with the swelling human populations causing more industrial growth, along with the spreading of diseases and pollution. In areas where there are high concentrations of people that leads to a large incidence of rodents, bringing high amounts of pathogens, meaning an upsurge in the risk of transmitting disease. In prominent manufacturing areas, there larger amounts of pollution, having an influence