Earth Faces a Sixth Mass Extinction Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resear

human beings Faces a Sixth Mass Extinction Scientists in Great Britain use up been studying the distribution of birds, butterflies and plants for the gone 40 years and the results from these studies suggest that the existence is heading towards another mass extinction, and this one may have its root in human activity. Within the four billion years that priming coat has been around, it has already experienced five mass extinctions. The most recent, and most nearly kn experience occurred 65 million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. musical composition that my have been caused by a meteor colliding with the earth, if scientists are correct, our actions, both past and present, are harming many species of organisms and we may even be causing our own demise. The ongoing studies in Great Britain covered the biodiversity (that is the amount of species of an organism inwardly a given area) and the amount of land the plants, birds, and butterflies each occup ied. It covered 1254 species of plants examine from 1954 to 1960 and again from 1987 to 1999, 201 bird species studied between 1968 and 1971 and again from 1988 to 1989, and 58 flit species studied between 1970 and 1982 and again between 1995 and 1999 (Thomas et al. 2004). Before this study there was only speculation into the possible population decline of insects. Since they are so abundant it had been hard to get any grasp on their veridical number or the effect humans were having on them (Pennisi 2004). Over the term they were studied 3.4% of the species of butterflies went extinct compared to only .4% of the plant species. None of the species of birds that were studied went extinct during the time of the research. The extinctions that occurred were evenly spread throughout Great... ...xtinction just yet, a brusk period of time from a geological point of view discount be hundreds of thousands of years. ReferencesAnanthaswamy, Anil. Earth faces sixth mass extinction N ewScientist.com News Service. marchland 18, 2004 http//www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994797Pennisi, Elizabeth. 2004 Naturalists Surveys Show That British Butterflies Are Going, Going ... Science v. 303, p. 1747Recer, Paul. mankind blamed for march toward 6th mass extinction Star playscript Online. March 19, 2004 http//www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1079682723291630.xmlRincon, Paul. UK wildlife heading into crisis BBC News Online. March 18, 2004 http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3520372.stmThomas, J. A. et al., 2004 Comparative Losses of British Butterflies, Birds, and Plants and the worldwide Extinction Crisis Science v. 303, p. 1879