The Earth has entered a new period of extinction, a study by three US universities has concluded, and humans could be among the first casualties.
The report, led by the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, said vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal.
The findings echo those in a report published by Duke University last year.
One of the new study's authors said: "We are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event."

The last such event was 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs were wiped out, in all likelihood by a large meteor hitting Earth.
"If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on," said the lead author, Gerardo Ceballos.

Pollination by bees could disappear within three generations, the report warns
The scientists looked at historic rates of extinction for vertebrates - animals with backbones - by assessing fossil records.
They found that the current extinction rate was more than 100 times higher than in periods when Earth was not going through a mass extinction event.
Since 1900, the report says, more than 400 more vertebrates had disappeared.
Such a loss would normally be seen over a period of up to 10,000 years, the scientists say.
The study - published in the Science Advances journal - cites causes such as climate change, pollution and deforestation.
Given the knock-on effect of ecosystems being destroyed, the report says benefits such as pollination by bees could be lost within three human generations.
Computer artwork of a large asteroid hitting Earth 65 million years ago.
Extinction may be more gradual than when the dinosaurs died, the report says
Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich said: "There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead.
"We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says at least 50 animals move closer to extinction every year.
Around 41% of all amphibians and 25% of mammals are threatened with extinction, it says.
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Most at risk: the lemur

According to the IUCN, the lemur faces a real struggle to avoid extinction in the wild in the coming years.
The group says that 94% of all lemurs are under threat, with more than a fifth of all lemur species classed as "critically endangered".
As well as seeing their habitat in Madagascar destroyed by illegal logging, lemurs are also regularly hunted for their meat, the IUCN says.
What were the five mass extinction events?
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Last year, a report by Stuart Pimm, a biologist and extinction expert at Duke University in North Carolina, also warned mankind was entering a sixth mass extinction event.

But Mr Pimm's report said the current rate of extinction was more than 1,000 times faster than in the past, not 114, as the new report claims.

The new report's authors said it was still possible to avoid a "dramatic decay of biodiversity" through intensive conservation, but that rapid action was needed.

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33209548

na wah oo

The dude above me has spoilt the whole fun

;(

RobinHez:
The dude above me has spoilt the whole fun

spoilt wich fun


d dude iz on point

dnt tell me iz ftc fun... mtcheeeew!

sinaj:

spoilt wich fun

d dude iz on point
dnt tell me iz ftc fun... mtcheeeew!

Bringing God into this...
Dat has spoilt the fun!!!

RobinHez:

Bringing God into this...

Dat has spoilt the fun!!!

yea I tot he wanted to blaspheme, but i later understood his point after reading 2ru

Is this a strong case for cloning every living specie before we all eventually......... vanish?

Nature always create a balance but man has found a way to tilt it in his favour. Man seriously need to control his population, the more we over reproduce, the more space and resources we requires there by endangering other species and the planet itself. Maybe nature is still patient with us else one day we get struck by a stray rock from above or a super massive volcano erupt and wipe us out. Am wondering though, if man get wiped out may be a more intelligent and saner being might walk the earth

johnydon22:
Man is the most insane creature.
He worships an invisible God and destroys a Visible nature, he do not know that this God he worships is the nature he destroys.

It is our responsibility to preserve and nurture this earth, we have a responsibility to every form of life and not just ours.

Man should learn when restraint is needed and when to pause and retrace, with the rate man is going on with activities in this planet he will end up ending the planet faster than expected.

Look around you and you will see that the threat to this world is not Zombies, Vampires, Gods flying down from the sky to destroy it, Big foot and all but the threat to this earth is the innocent specie Homo sapiens.

Man is a threat to both himself and the world we live in

maybe we deserve whatever is coming & if it's what befell the dinosaurs then it's inescapable.
hopefully it's not Volcanism

nature itself is becoming doubtful. new planet i addition to oh ma God. http:///clfe1x

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