Thursday, September 18, 2014

Debunking the Holocene 'Sixth Mass Extinction': 250,000 years from now at current rate

An article today titled "Here’s Every Single Animal That Became Extinct In The Last 100 Years (PHOTOS)" lists and shows photos of a total of only 127 animals that have become extinct over the past 100 years.

There are a total of about 1,263,186 animal species documented on Earth, a count that increases by about 10,000 per year from new discoveries:

Animal group	Number of species
Vertebrates
Amphibians	6,199
Birds	9,956
Fish	30,000
Mammals	5,416
Reptiles	8,240
Subtotal	59,811
Invertebrates
Insects	950,000
Molluscs	81,000
Crustaceans	40,000
Corals	2,175
Others	130,200
Subtotal	1,203,375

Subtracting insect species, for which it is difficult to determine extinctions, gives a total currently known non-insect animal species of ~313,386.

Thus, the 127 animal extinctions over the past 100 years amounts to 0.04% of the currently known [and increasing] non-insect animal species.

At this rate of extinctions of 0.04% per century [which by the list below is not accelerating], it would take ~250,000 years to cause the "sixth mass extinction" that the usual alarmist outlets are crying wolf about, far longer than the onset of the next ice age [which would truly produce a mass extinction]. The fact is mass extinctions have naturally occurred 5 times before, well over 99.9% of the living species to have ever inhabited the Earth are now extinct, and it's not your fault.

Selected alarm:

Biologist warn of early stages of Earth's sixth mass extinction ...

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/.../140724171956.ht...

Science Daily

Jul 24, 2014 - The planet's current biodiversity, the product of 3.5 billion years of evolutionary trial and error, is the highest in the history of life. But it may be ...

Study: Earth in the midst of sixth mass extinction - USA Today

www.usatoday.com/story/tech/.../mass-extinction.../1309644...

USA Today

Jul 24, 2014 - The loss and decline of animals around the world -- caused by habitat loss and global climate disruption -- mean we're in the midst of a sixth.

The Extinction Crisis - Center for Biological Diversity

www.biologicaldiversity.org/.../extinction...

Center for Biological Diversity

It's frightening but true: Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals — the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years ...

The Sixth Great Extinction Is Underway—and We're to ...

time.com/3035872/sixth-great-extinction/

Time

Jul 25, 2014 - The Earth has been stripped of up to 90% of its species five times before in the past 450 million years. Now it's happening again—and this time ...

Fact or Fiction?: The Sixth Mass Extinction Can Be Stopped ...

www.scientificamerican.com › ... › Fact or Fiction

Scientific American

Jul 25, 2014 - In the jargon it's an "Anthropocene defaunation," or sixth mass extinction, and one caused by humans. Scientists can't be sure of the current ...

Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction Is Now Underway, Wiping Out ...

www.weather.com/.../earth-middle-sixth-mass-exti...

The Weather Channel

Jul 28, 2014 - It all adds up to the sixth mass extinction in the planet's history, the editors of Science Magazine report in a special series of scientific studies ...