Holocene Extinction - Ongoing Holocene Extinction

Ongoing Holocene Extinction

One scientist estimates the extinction may be 10,000 times the background extinction rate (the average between mass extinction events). Nevertheless most scientists predict a much lower extinction rate than this outlying estimate. Stuart Pimm stated "the current rate of species extinction is about 100 times the natural rate" for plants.

Megafaunal extinctions continue into the 21st century. Modern extinctions are more directly attributable to human influences. Extinction rates are minimized in the popular imagination by the survival of captive populations of animals that are extinct in the wild (Père David's Deer, etc.), by marginal survivals of highly publicized megafauna that are ecologically extinct (the Giant Panda, Sumatran Rhinoceros, North American Black-Footed Ferret, etc.) and by extinctions among arthropods. Some examples of modern extinctions of "charismatic" mammal fauna include:

• Aurochs, Europe
• Tarpan, Europe
• Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, Thylacinus cynocephalus, Tasmania
• Quagga, a zebra subspecies, Southeast Africa
• Steller's Sea Cow
• Bluebuck
• Pyrenean Ibex
• Falkland Islands Wolf
• Atlas Bear
• Caribbean Monk Seal
• The closely related Bali Tiger and Javan Tiger
• Eastern Cougar
• Western Black Rhinoceros

Many birds have become extinct as a result of human activity, especially birds endemic to islands, including many flightless birds (see a more complete list under extinct birds). Notable extinct birds include:

• the Dodo, the giant flightless pigeon of Mauritius, Indian Ocean
• the Great Auk of islands in the north Atlantic
• the Passenger Pigeon of North America
• several species of Moa, giant flightless birds from New Zealand
• the Carolina Parakeet of the American southeast

A 1998 poll conducted by the American Museum of Natural History found that seventy percent of biologists believe that we are in the midst of an anthropogenic extinction. Numerous scientific studies—such as a 2004 report published in Nature, and papers authored by the 10,000 scientists who contribute to the IUCN's annual Red List of threatened species—have since reinforced this conviction. In The Future of Life (2002), E.O. Wilson of Harvard calculated that, if the current rate of human disruption of the biosphere continues, one-half of Earth's higher lifeforms will be extinct by 2100.

Peter Raven, past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), states in the foreword to their publication AAAS Atlas of Population and Environment: "We have driven the rate of biological extinction, the permanent loss of species, up several hundred times beyond its historical levels, and are threatened with the loss of a majority of all species by the end of the 21st century." Some of the human causes of the current extinctions include deforestation, hunting, pollution, climate change, and the introduction of non-native species.

189 countries which are signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio Accord) have committed to preparing a Biodiversity Action Plan, a first step at identifying specific endangered species and habitats, country by country.

Various species are predicted to go extinct in the near future.