Earth In the Midst of Sixth Mass Extinction: the 'Anthropocene Defaunation'

mspohr writes: A special issue of Science magazine devoted to 'Vanishing Fauna' publishes a series of articles about the man-caused extinction of species and the implications for ecosystems and the climate. Quoting: "During the Pleistocene epoch, only tens of thousands of years ago, our planet supported large, spectacular animals. Mammoths, terror birds, giant tortoises, and saber-toothed cats, as well as many less familiar species such as giant ground sloths (some of which reached 7 meters in height) and glyptodonts (which resembled car-sized armadillos), roamed freely. Since then, however, the number and diversity of animal species on Earth have consistently and steadily declined. Today we are left with a relatively depauperate fauna, and we continue to lose animal species to extinction rapidly. Although some debate persists, most of the evidence suggests that humans were responsible for extinction of this Pleistocene fauna, and we continue to drive animal extinctions today through the destruction of wild lands, consumption of animals as a resource or a luxury, and persecution of species we see as threats or competitors." Unfortunately, most of the detail is behind a paywall, but the summary should be enough to get the point across.

Comments

no problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I had no intention of reading past the summary anyway. If that....

Re:no problem

[Dcnjoe60]

I had no idea we were supposedly responsible for the extinction of mammoth.

Why not? We've had evidence that we ATE them going back to the 1800's.

The early 1800's

We also eat cows and they aren't going extinct. Correlation is not causation.

Giant ground sloths are extinct?

[timrod]

You guys sure about that? I'm pretty sure there's one sleeping a few cubes down from mine. At least, I hope that's a giant ground sloth...

Re:OMG

[Cardoor]

your'e comment reminds me of an experience when i was a freshman in high school taking shop class. A friend on the schoolbus asked to see the boxcutter we had to bring in for class (im guessing they dont allow that in high schools anymore these days). anyway, when i took it out and commented on how sharp it was, the idiot next to us, trying to look for someone to make fun of said 'aww.. thats bullshit! its not sharp at all!' and proceeded to pull it out of my hand, and swipe it against his arm. after about a second, blood began the gush, and his expression changed to an 'OH.'

I knew it

[justthinkit]

Sooner or later my mom was going to get on slashdot.

Re:But what IS the point they're making?

[NotDrWho]

It's not an open sewer, it's a mutli-household composting stream and cholera species sanctuary.