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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (456808)	2/16/2009 12:30:05 PM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1575354

The Sixth Mass Extinction has begun! As unbelievable as it may sound, after having read through the five mass extinctions, the sixth mass extinction is in progress, now, with animals going extinct 100 to 1,000 times (possibly even 1,000 to 10,000 times) faster than at the normal background extinction rate, which is about 10 to 25 species per year. Many researchers claim that we are in the middle of a mass extinction event faster than the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction which wiped out the dinosaurs. Rather than a meteorite or large volcanic eruption, the alarming decline of biodiversity (diversity of species on earth) leading to the current mass extinction is the results of five major human activities: Habitat destruction including human-induced climate change. Human-induced climate change is the result in high amounts of greenhouse gas emissions (primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide). Acting like a greenhouse, these gases trap heat from the sun. Other human activities such as habitat destruction in combination with climate change are making the situation only worse. Increasing temperatures may force species to move toward their preferred, and generally cooler, climate range. Thus, if those habitats have already been destroyed, then the species are not be able to escape the climate change and will go extinct. Invasive species. Invasive/aliens species displace native species through predation, competition, and disease organisms. Pollution. Human overpopulation. Over-harvesting (hunting, fishing, and gathering). The Hawai'I chaff flower, the golden coqui Puerto Rican tree frog, the Martinique Parrot, the Yuman box turtle, the Madagascan Pygmy hippo, and the Japanese sea lion are amongst the list that include the 784 species of plants and animals that have recently vanished from earth because of human activities. All continents are impacted by this ongoing biological catastrophe. The completion of species inventory on earth and saving them from becoming extinct must be a world priority. endangeredspeciesinternational.org Modern mass extinction Main article: Holocene extinction event Further information: Deforestation According to a 1998 survey of 400 biologists conducted by New York's American Museum of Natural History, nearly 70 percent believed that they were currently in the early stages of a human-caused mass extinction,[22] known as the Holocene extinction event. In that survey, the same proportion of respondents agreed with the prediction that up to 20 percent of all living populations could become extinct within 30 years (by 2028). Biologist E. O. Wilson estimated [5] in 2002 that if current rates of human destruction of the biosphere continue, one-half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in 100 years.[23] More significantly the rate of species extinctions at present is estimated at 100 to 1000 times "background" or average extinction rates in the evolutionary time scale of planet Earth.[24] en.wikipedia.org