Note: <\/b>Anthropocene Epoch<\/span><\/a> is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth\u2019s history when the human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet\u2019s climate and ecosystems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A <\/span>mass extinction<\/span><\/a> is a short period of geological time in which a high percentage of <\/span>biodiversity<\/span>, or distinct species<\/span>\u2014<\/span><\/i>bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates<\/span>\u2014<\/span><\/i>dies out.<\/span><\/p>\n The planet has experienced five previous mass extinction events. Experts now believe that humans are in the midst of sixth mass extinction.<\/span><\/p>\n Unlike previous extinction events caused by natural phenomena, the sixth mass extinction is driven by human activity. That’s why this extinction is also referred <\/span>to as <\/span>the Anthropocene extinction.<\/span><\/p>\n Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: <\/b>It is the first such report by IPBES. Its assessment says that 1 million animal and plant species face extinction, and thousands of these would become extinct within decades. Since 1900, the number of native species in most of the land-based habitats has declined by 20%.<\/span><\/p>\n Assessment of the state of invertebrates: <\/b>This study has found that Earth could already have lost between 7.5 and 13% of the two million known species on Earth\u2014a staggering 150,000 to 260,000 species<\/span><\/p>\n Living Planet Report 2020:<\/b> It was released by World Wildlife Fund(WWF). It says the Asia Pacific region lost 45% of its vertebrate population in four-and-half decades, while the average global loss is 68%.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013 The report points out five major reasons behind the biodiversity loss across the planet: 1) <\/b>Changes in land and sea use (habitat loss and degradation), <\/span>2)<\/b> Overexploitation of species, <\/span>3) <\/b>Invasive species and disease, <\/span>4) <\/b>Pollution and <\/span>5) <\/b>Climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n Source: <\/b>This post is based on the article<\/span> \u201cGood while it lasted – I: 6th mass extinction underway, courtesy humans\u201d<\/b> published in<\/span> Down To Earth<\/b> on<\/span> 11th April 2022.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the News? The sixth mass extinction is underway and the earth is losing species at an unprecedented rate. Hence, this marks the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch. Note: Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth\u2019s history when the human activity started to… Continue reading Good while it lasted – I: 6th mass extinction underway, courtesy humans<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,9],"tags":[10504,10514],"class_list":["post-178687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-public","tag-down-to-earth","tag-dte","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is Mass Extinction?<\/b><\/h5>\n
![\"Sixth](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/0.25721500_1647256857_28-2.jpg?resize=586%2C408&ssl=1\")
What is causing the sixth mass extinction?<\/b><\/h5>\n
What do various reports say about the rate of extinction of species?<\/b><\/h5>\n