Mass Extinctions Threaten Future Of Humanity

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), the most comprehensive audit of the health of our planet to date, has published a warning that "if we continue with current rates of species extinction, we will have no chance of rolling back poverty and the lives of all humans will be diminished." The MA has been drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations over four years.

"Changes in biodiversity were more rapid in the last 50 years than at any time in human history," said Dr Georgina Mace, the director of science at the Institute of Zoology, in London, UK, and an MA synthesis team member.

"And when you look to the future, to various projections and scenarios, we expect those changes to continue and in some circumstances to accelerate.

"Future models are very uncertain but all of them tell us that as we move into the next 100 years, we'll be seeing extinction rates that are a thousand to 10,000 times those in the fossil record."

A third of all amphibians, a fifth of mammals and an eighth of all birds are now threatened with extinction. - BBC, MA

Ditto BNN