- The planet is experiencing amass extinction— the sixth time in Earth’s history that a wide swath of species are seeinga major collapse in their populations.
- Human activities are to blame:p ollution, farming, and deforestation are destroying natural habitats, while carbon emissions are causing theoceans to warm at unprecedented rates.
- According to arecent report from the United Nations, up to 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, many within decades.
- Marine species have experienced fewer extinctions than their land-based counterparts, but 15 ocean animals have gone extinct in the last 100 years, and 72 more areon the verge of extinction.
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A growing body of evidence suggests the planet is in the midst ofa sixth mass extinction. Animal species around the world are being hit on multiple fronts as habitat loss,hotter oceans, andclimate change drive their populations down at unprecedented rates.
According to a recent United Nations report,up to 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, and many could disappear within decades.
The report blamed one factor for this trend: humans. Pollution, deforestation, and habitat destruction due to farming and development have already “severely altered” 75% of all land and 40% of marine environments, it said.
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