Congressional Member’s Report Card

Congressional Member’s Report Card

Our Environment’s Reality?

Perspective - Species Extinction's

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

  • Species are critical for a healthy planet, but a growing human population is placing them under enormous pressure. Habitat destruction, invasive species, overexploitation, illegal wildlife trade, pollution and climate change are threatening the survival of species worldwide. www.iucn.org UN Goals“
  • Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals. Unlike past mass extinctions, caused by events like asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, and natural climate shifts, the current crisis is almost entirely caused by us  humans. Today we are seeing an extraordinary high rate of extinctions. Our planet now faces a global extinction crisis never witnessed by humankind.
  • Scientists predict that more than 1 million species are on track for extinction in the coming decades.Because the rate of change in our biosphere is increasing, and because every species’ extinction potentially leads to the extinction of others bound to that species in a complex ecological web, numbers of extinctions are likely to snowball in the coming decades as ecosystems unravel.

CONNECT THE EVIDENCE & FIND YOUR KEY

UNLOCK THE FACTS