FOR more than a decade, scientists have been warning of an impending collapse of global biodiversity – the sixth great extinction. Averting this massive species loss and the resulting pauperisation of ecosystems demands immediate action, they urge.
What they don’t realise is that this “extinction crisis” is no more preventable than previous extinctions caused by asteroid impacts or the detonation of tens of thousands of volcanoes. In the century ahead, upwards of half of all species will functionally, if not literally, vanish. In this respect, the crisis is over.
The cause of the sixth extinction is well known: human selection (what…
