Life On Earth Could Face Mass Extinction In 100 Years

What if someone told you that in a hundred years, life on earth would cease to exist? Imagine a mass extinction to rival that of the dinosaurs being wiped from the planet! That is the future awaiting us all, according to a recent scientific report. The alarming rate at which animal species are dying may only increase with time.

The Nature magazine recently published an article that delivered a grim warning for all its readers. The scientific journal carried out an in depth analysis of all the varied animals on the planet and their future life spans. The analysis revealed fairly terrifying statistics; it indicated that around 41 percent of all amphibians, 26 percent of mammals and 13 percent of birds currently inhabiting the planet are all facing extinction in the not-so-distant future.

The journal points to a lack of natural habitat and environment degradation, caused by human activities, that has so far led to the near-extinction of many an exotic species. For instance, the Sumatran elephant, the mountain gorilla, loggerhead turtles; these are all now, endangered species. Scientists around the world are of the opinion that this list will perhaps keep growing.

Marine ecologist Derek Tittensor of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge said, "Habitat destruction, pollution or overfishing either kills off wild creatures and plants or leaves them badly weakened. The trouble is that in coming decades, the additional threat of worsening climate change will become more and more pronounced and could then kill off these survivors."

Ecologists are also faced with the challenge of trying to figure out the current speed at which the numbers of species are disappearing. Needless to say, it is a dauntingly challenging task to keep track of the various animal and plant species, out of nearly two to fifty million. Add to this the fact that, most of the so far unknown species sometimes exist in habitats that are currently under destruction due to human expansion projects.

This pattern strongly indicates the theory that although the cause of the previous five major mass extinctions were either astronomical or geological; the blame for any future possibilities of a mass extinction, whether they be a hundred or a thousand years from now, can only be laid on the shoulders of human beings. Drastic changes are required to be made by governments and citizens alike to ensure that such a chilling future be averted.