biodiversity

The incredible diversity of life on earth today has evolved over the last 3.5 million years. It has only been in the last 300 years that we have begun to describe the species on the planet, and even now many species remain unknown. Just as we begin to uncover and understand the earth’s ecosystems, species are disappearing. We have entered what many scientists consider to be the Sixth Major Extinction. In the last mass extinction, 65 million years ago, about two-thirds of species living at the time went extinct, most famously the dinosaurs. According to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), 16,306 species are now endangered with extinction.We have already witnessed the disappearance of much of the world’s grasslands and dry forests, ecosystems well-suited for agriculture. Though the world has experienced mass extinctions in the past, this one is different. It is driven by humans, their growing populations, and their insatiable demand for the earth’s resources.