Extinctions can be explained in short as a widespread and rapid decrease in Earth’s biodiversity, usually identified by a sharp change in the abundance of multicellular organisms.
It’s a fact that throughout our planet’s history, five mass extinction events happened, and the most well known was 66 million years ago, when the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid.
The sixth extinction
Professor Katrin Meissner, Director of the Climate Research Centre in Australia described in an Amazon Prime documentary that the unstoppable sixth extinction has begun.
One of her statements was:
“For humans, I think we are very vulnerable right now and there’s a lot of humans on this Earth.”
“We all depend on a few, several belts, a few regions that produce most of our food,” she added.
She even went as far as questioning the systems that we’ve been relying on for decades:
“These structures put in place over the last 20 years, will they work? I think that’s highly questionable.”
The cause of our extinction is…us?
The scientist warned viewers of the show that the toxins and plastics that we dump into the world’s oceans only push us closer and closer to the point of no return:
“It might just be too late at one point.”
“And that could be some point very soon.”
It’s worrying to say at least that we watch dozens of species of animals go extinct as decades pass.
Does history repeat itself?
A potentially hazardous asteroid, which is about 775 meters, might be a potential cause of extinction, only if we let it happen. We are close to developing technology that could render this scenario impossible, but we’re not quite there yet, so we have to keep doing our best!
Unlike dinosaurs, we are able to learn how to fight back! Spreading awareness is a great first step towards avoiding a potential extinction!
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.