Extinctions raise risk of "biological annihilation," study warns

https://news.yahoo.com/extinctions-raise-risk-biological-annihilation-195642749.html

Jeff Berardelli
,CBS News•June 1, 2020

In recent months, the global pandemic has illuminated how mismanagement of wild animals and natural ecosystems can threaten human health and even the stability of society. Now, a new study from Stanford University issues a dire warning, concluding the extinction rate is likely much greater than previously thought and that if we don't reverse course, the consequences for mankind could be "unimaginable."

The new study, titled "Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction," was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It highlights how human pressures such as population growth, habitat destruction, the wildlife trade, pollution and climate change have combined to wipe out hundreds of species and are critically threatening thousands more around the world at an unprecedented rate. This, the authors say, is eroding nature's ability to provide vital sustenance to people.

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For this new study, the authors examined thousands of species and found that 515 species of terrestrial vertebrates are on the brink of extinction, each with fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining. About half had fewer than 250 individuals left.

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The authors say this trend is leading to an intensification of health threats to humans, with the coronavirus pandemic being one timely example of the interplay between wild species, changing ecosystems and human health. "We have destroyed more than 50% of all-natural ecosystems. And we trade millions of wild species every year. We have broken the barriers that biodiversity and ecosystems provide us against natural diseases," Ceballos explains.

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Jane Goodall puts it in personal terms: "Please remember that your life matters in the scheme of things. Every day you make some impact on the planet, and you can choose what sort of impact you make. What you buy, eat, and wear, how you interact with people and nature, does truly make a difference when millions of people all make ethical decisions."