Essay On Animal Extinction

The number of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years . Creatures across the land, rivers, and the seas are destroyed as humans killed them for food in unsuitable numbers, while polluting or destroying their habitats.

The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About

According to a Collective Evolution article published on March 4, 2013, “260 million acres...of US forests have been clear-cut to create land for producing feed for livestock” (Ketler 1). In addition to this, National Geographic has released an article about deforestation stating that one of the worst outcomes of deforestation is the destruction of habitats for animals. The article goes on to state that deforestation is also a major cause of climate change and global warming. What is even worse is that this deforestation will likely not stop, as the world population swells and the demand for meats as well. So, this tragedy must be stopped now, or this could materialize extremely negative, complex issues for the environment and the population of the

Forests have been cut, crops planted, pastures seeded, and urban areas paved. One of the most troubling consequences of human modification of ecosystems is an ongoing loss of species and therefore a loss of biodiversity around the world. The current extinctions have a human cause: habitat loss (such as clearing of tropical rainforests); the introduction of invasive species; unregulated hunting and fishing; and pollution of water, air, and

A report from Recovering America’s Wildlife Crisis states, “More than 150 species have already gone extinct and about 40% of freshwater fish species are imperiled.” Animals are being killed off by the minute. Now the wildlife species are going to abolished from Earth.

In today’s world, hardly any species of wildlife become extinct from natural causes. Europeans hunt animals to such an extent that we classify it as overhunting. We destroy their habitat, and introduce other animals that are a threat to endangered animals or are competition for resources and food. Habitat destruction is the greatest threat to both animals and plants.

When visiting museums such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City we can get a first-hand look at some of the massive creatures like the wooly mammoth that used to roam our planet some 11,000 years ago. And after viewing the skeletons of such extraordinary creatures known as the megafauna we may ponder as to what event transpired to eliminate so many species. What we do know is the late Pleistocene era marked a time of fluctuating climate that coincided with the migration of people into the New World. During this period mammals such as the woolly mammoth and mastodons were becoming extinct. However, questions still remain to determine if it was because of severe climatic change, or possibly the extinctions occurred from over-hunting by humans, or possibly a combination of both? These are many of the concerns that have created the foundation for a serious debate among many scholars in the anthropology and archaeology community.

Elizabeth Kolbert, a journalist, took her curiosity of science and traveled all around the world to see just how the lives of different varieties of species deal with predators, habitat changes, climate changes, etc. Just some of the places Kolbert visited were the United States, Panama, France, the island of Ischia, One Tree Island, and many, many more. Extinction, the disappearance of a particular species, is a crucial topic in this particular book. Many species over the whole entire world, are quickly declining in numbers. Humans have a vital responsibility for some of these species going extinct, and we need to advertise what we are doing to animals world wide so we aren’t a source of the majority of extinctions.

To begin with, habitats are shrinking. The article shrinking habitats from expert space states, “ A study shows that 70 percent of forest grounds are within a half-mile from the forest edge which is causing harmful effects”. These harmful effects are animals dying due to cars and getting lost from where their habitats are. These effects are boosting the rate of extinction.Also, in

This article argues the many different types of negative effects humans can have on theenvironment. Each type of habitat destruction is explained and provided fact to show theamounts of change. This article comes from a trusted

Bill Freedmen, author of “Endangered Species—Human Causes Of Extinction and Endangerment” notes, “scientists approximate that present extinction rates are 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the average natural extinction rate.” These distressing numbers should be acted upon to save the endangered species and avoid the catastrophic change to this planet if these species were to become extinct. In order to produce change, people need to recognize that habitat loss, climate change, and poaching are all factors in why our animal species are going extinct.

Dinosaur extinction: An analysis of events and theories that possibly led to the dinosaurs' demise.

It’s clear that a great extinction is coming from the evidence of the destruction of other species around us. The choices made by the human race have too often negatively affected the surrounding species. Tracy Wilson, the site director for HowStuffWorks.com, in an article for Animal Planet, states that

Since before the industrial evolutions humans have been pumping green house gasses—carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons— into the atmosphere however, it wasn’t until recently that the amounts being produced are shoving the Earth into a sixth extinction. While the causes of this upcoming extinction are constantly debated on it has earned itself the name Holocene extinction. This name is derived from the theory that humans are the main contributors to this extinction. To investigate the cause Elizabeth Kolbert, and American journalist and professor at Williams College, took the world on a wild and saddening journey on the human contribution to this looming extinction in her novel, The Sixth Extinction; An Unnatural History. Not only does Kolbert’s book explain how humans have contributed to global warming and its effects on life on land but also ocean acidification and how life under the sea has changed over the years.

Rapid climate change also ends up on the suspect list of possible dinosaur extinction events. During the latter part of the Cretaceous Period continents broke up causing volcanoes to erupt and fill the sky with gas and ash resulting in a drastic climate change (“Dinosaurs Climate Change and Biodiversity”). The shifting of continents changed the Earth’s landscape, altering weather patterns and overall climate (“Dinosaur Extinction Theories”). Also, over a long period of time, climate gradually changed. Ocean habits changed, temperatures grew much more extreme causing scorching summers and frigid winters (Norell, Dingus, and Gaffney). Radical temperature changes like these led to a green-house effect, making life for the dinosaurs a lot