įrogs, toads, and salamanders are disappearing because of habitat loss, water and air pollution, climate change, ultraviolet light exposure, introduced exotic species, and disease. Scientists estimate that a third or more of all the roughly 6,300 known species of amphibians are at risk of extinction. No group of animals has a higher rate of endangerment than amphibians. What's clear is that many thousands of species are at risk of disappearing forever in the coming decades. In its latest four-year endangered species assessment, the IUCN reports that the world won't meet a goal of reversing the extinction trend toward species depletion by 2010. The IUCN has assessed roughly 3 percent of described species and identified 16,928 species worldwide as being threatened with extinction, or roughly 38 percent of those assessed. Noted conservation scientist David Wilcove estimates that there are 14,000 to 35,000 endangered species in the United States, which is 7 to 18 percent of U.S. Nobody really knows how many species are in danger of becoming extinct. In the past 500 years, we know of approximately 1,000 species that have gone extinct, from the woodland bison of West Virginia and Arizona's Merriam's elk to the Rocky Mountain grasshopper, passenger pigeon and Puerto Rico's Culebra parrot - but this doesn't account for thousands of species that disappeared before scientists had a chance to describe them. And while much concern over extinction focuses on globally lost species, most of biodiversity's benefits take place at a local level, and conserving local populations is the only way to ensure genetic diversity critical for a species' long-term survival. Thus while conservationists often justifiably focus their efforts on species-rich ecosystems like rainforests and coral reefs - which have a lot to lose - a comprehensive strategy for saving biodiversity must also include habitat types with fewer species, like grasslands, tundra, and polar seas - for which any loss could be irreversibly devastating. Species diversity ensures ecosystem resilience, giving ecological communities the scope they need to withstand stress. 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. In fact, 99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species, and global warming . 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. Addressing the extinction crisis will require leadership - especially from the United States - alongside bold, courageous, far-reaching initiatives that attack this emergency at its root.Īmong the most critical steps is the 30x30 campaign, which will protect wildlife places and wildlife habitat, including oceans, rivers, forests, deserts and swamps. More than a century of habitat destruction, pollution, the spread of invasive species, overharvest from the wild, climate change, population growth and other human activities have pushed nature to the brink.
The current extinction crisis is entirely of our own making. The presence of wildlife brings joy and enriches us all - and each extinction makes our home a lonelier and colder place for us and future generations. Wildlife and plants have inspired our histories, mythologies, languages and how we view the world. These are tangible consequential losses, such as crop pollination and water purification, but also spiritual and cultural ones.Īlthough often obscured by the noise and rush of modern life, people retain deep emotional connections to the wild world.
The consequences are profound, not just in those places and for those species but for all of us. Each time a species goes extinct, the world around us unravels a bit.
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