Scientists believe that another mass extinction will occur in twenty years. This will be the first mass extention caused by people. This would result in three-quarters of species disappearing. This mass extinction would mark the sixth one to occur. Yet, this one would be different than all the rest. The causes of this mass extinction will be the burning of fossil fuels, the spread of diseases, growth of the human population, consuming more resources, and the amount of plastic floating in our oceans. Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund reported a 58% decline in some vertebrate animal populations since 1970. It is believed that if something doesn't change to lower this number, two-thirds of these birds, fish, apmhibians, reptiles, and mammals will disappear by 2020. Some scientists disagree with this information, but one thing they do agree on is that the planet has 10 to 20 years to stop the sixth mass extinction before it is too late. Researches believe we have about a human generation to fix this problem. In order to stop it from occuring, scientists believe we need to ditch fossil fuels, protect our land and the ocean, and stop illegal trading. Barnosky, a lead scientist on this reasearch, stated, "The best way to envision the sixth mass extintion is to look outside and then just imagine that three out of every four of the species that were common out there are gone." Although news of this mass extinction first started being reported a couple years ago, it has still remained a hot topic of interest as the time clock of 20 years continues to tick.
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What is the burning of fossil fuels and why is it done?
Fossil fuels are formed from the remains of living organisms. Fossil fuels are primarily coal, fuel oil, or natural gas. Burning fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Humans depend on fossil fuels to heat their homes, run vehicles, power, manufacturing, and electricity.
If there was one thing you could do in your daily life to help prevent this mass extinction, what would it be?
I would use less plastic to help the number of plastic items floating around in our oceans. Some restaurants are switching from plastic straws to paper straws and even changing their cups to avoid using plastic.
Replies
Interesting story and welldone!
I don't usually like this mindset, but what can I do to stop it? Am I really going to save the world by driving an electric car or making sure my candy wrapper goes in the right bin? And also when I saw this post I thought it was going to be about something like the Yosemite Supervolcano, but its just about the same pollution story we've heard a million times. I call clickbait.
You have a very interesting opinion that many other people may have also. Asking "but what can I do to stop it? Am I really going to save the world by driving an electric car or making sure my candy wrapper goes in the right bin?", may be the mindset of lots of other Americans and world citizens. Unfortunately, this mindset is part of the problem we face when trying to make our environment a better place. If EACH person on this planet did something small, maybe not quite as large as driving an electric car, but maybe like using paper instead of plastic, than we would have VAST improvements in making our world a cleaner place. Personally, I think we are continuing to hear about pollution because not much is being done about it due to people not thinking they can make a difference. Pollution wouldn't be in the headlines as often if it was becoming less of a problem. You may consider it to be "clickbait" but pollution really is a serious problem that can change the world in a bad way years down the road.
Yes, we do use fossil fuels in our daily lives. Humans depend on fossil fuels to heat their homes, run vehicles, power, manufacturing, and electricity. That is a great idea to use reusable grocery bag instead of plastic ones. Even using paper bags instead of plastic bags would greatly help the amount of plastic filling our oceans. Recycling is a great thing to do also!
Fossil fuels are the decomposition of dead organisms, when burnt makes natural things like coal, and oil. Burrning fossil fuels it fuels all transportation, such as cars, planes, trains, ect. Which then pollutes the air with greenhouse gases. Something that I can do is to not buy anything that is made from different animal species.
Great definition of fossil fuels! We really depend on them a lot. Especially for transportation, which you mentioned. Not buying anything that is made from different animal species is a great way to do your part in trying to prevent this sixth mass extinction. Illegal trading of precious animal parts such as the ivory tusks from elephants is a huge problem the world faces.
Stuff that is left from other living things, because this makes more reused stuff like natural fuels and coal. Probably use reusable straws, and use other silverware or dishware that isn't plastic and stuff that you can't throw away.
That's a good description of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, they are polluted our air. It's hard to reduce their harmful effects on our environment because so many people rely on them. There are people who are switching to renewable energy, which is better for our environment. I like your idea of using items that can't be thrown away in order to help our environment. This will help the amount of waste in landfills.
You have to remeber that it says "believe" so there is always the possibility this doesn't happen at all or at a later date. But regardless of what happens at all, we do need to take better care of what we have. This is because about anyone takes everything for granted, because all that you have and know could be gone in a blink of an eye.
So it would be in our best interest to treat it like there would be a mass extinction, regardless of the outcome, because only then would we understand the magnitude of whats going on, rather than staying ignorant and doing nothing.
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