The Holocene Mass Extinction?
The Holocene epoch is the geologically brief interval of time
encompassing the last 10,000 years.
With the evolution of humans beginning in the Neogene,
humans have evolved into a significant agent of extinction. For example, David Western of the New
York Zoological Society, has speculated that for the
destruction of every two hundred square kilometers of tropical forest and
one hundred thousand square kilometers of rangeland there is a resultant loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of species. Most of these have never been (or ever will be) documented by science.
Deforestation, agricultural practices, pollution, overhunting, and numerous other human activities result in numerous species being threatened everyday. However, more information is required to see if the level of extinctions being experienced today are the harbringer of a mass extinction or merely reflect natural background levels of species replacement.
Minor Extinctions of Earth History
Mass Extinctions of the Phanerozoic Menu
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