SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION CRISIS

June 6, 2020

The ongoing sixth mass extinction may be one of the most serious environmental threats to the persistence of civilisation, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

About:

Names: This ongoing extinction of species, which coincides with the present Holocene epoch is known as Holocene extinction, Sixth extinction or Anthropocene extinction.
Background: In the history of Earth we’ve had five major extinction events in the history of life.
- The five mass extinctions that took place in the last 450 million years have led to the destruction of 70-95 % of the species of plants, animals and microorganisms that existed earlier.
- The most recent was about 65 million years ago when an asteroid crashed into the Yucatán [Peninsula] and took out the dinosaurs, changing the climate dramatically.

Source : Indian Express