Looming mass extinction could be biggest 'since the dinosaurs,' says WWF

[NickB79]

https://m.dw.com/en/looming-mass-extinction-could-be-biggest-since-the-dinosaurs-says-wwf/a-60289286

More plants and animals than ever before are on a global list of threatened species, with the World Wildlife Fund Germany warning that more than 1 million species could go extinct within the next 10 years
Ever-growing environmental threats are pushing many animals and plants to the brink of extinction — the scale of which hasn't been seen since dinosaurs died out, the German branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on Wednesday.

The stark warnings came as WWF Germany released its "Winners and Losers of 2021," an annual list of animals whose existence is now acutely under threat — as well as conservation victories.

No "could be" about it, IMO. Though I hope their ten-year estimate is off, even the most optimistic timeline will see us there in 25 years at current rates of warming and habitat destruction.

Most of these species will be the little things. The bugs, slugs, spiders, flies, plants, frogs, etc. Not all that photogenic; not like a tiger or gorilla. Not something most people will miss. How often do you stop and wonder: when was the last time I saw a tiger salamander? But they're the threads that hold the tapestry of our ecosystems together. Pull them out, and the whole thing unravels. And when it unravels, the farmland, forests, lakes and seas we rely on for resources go with it.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. humans caused this

but no one would ever listen to population control circa 1972. zilch.

[OrlandoDem2]

2. Most of us remember the right wing laughing at Al Gore over 20 years ago.

They all disgust me.

[Shermann]

3. Could?

We're already there. It has a name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

[misanthrope]

5. I prefer Anthropocene Extinction

because it is more accurately descriptive of the cause. Elizabeth Kolbert won a Pulitzer Prize for penning an accessible look at the disaster we've wrought.

This time, we're the meteor.

[roamer65]

4. Hopefully humans are a good amount of it.

🤞