For several years, Zach Pilchen has worked in various positions as a skilled professional environmental lawyer and law student. Over the course of his time with organizations like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Nature Conservancy, Zach Pilchen has become highly knowledgeable of laws pertaining to clean air and climate change.
A newly completed study, led by scientific experts from Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that planet Earth has entered into its sixth period of mass extinction. A few of the causes for this new age of extinction include ongoing climate change and deforestation of important natural habitats. The researchers determined that in modern times animal species have gone extinct at rates roughly 100 times higher than normal. The last time animals disappeared from the planet in such numbers occurred 66 million years ago, when the Earth’s last dinosaurs became extinct.
The study primarily focused on extinction rates among vertebrates, including reptiles and mammals. The study also took great pains to take the most conservative approach possible. For example, the authors used a past extinction rate twice as high as figures commonly accepted among the scientific community, meaning that, from another perspective, the present-day extinction rate could be considered 200 times higher than normal, if not greater.
A newly completed study, led by scientific experts from Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that planet Earth has entered into its sixth period of mass extinction. A few of the causes for this new age of extinction include ongoing climate change and deforestation of important natural habitats. The researchers determined that in modern times animal species have gone extinct at rates roughly 100 times higher than normal. The last time animals disappeared from the planet in such numbers occurred 66 million years ago, when the Earth’s last dinosaurs became extinct.
The study primarily focused on extinction rates among vertebrates, including reptiles and mammals. The study also took great pains to take the most conservative approach possible. For example, the authors used a past extinction rate twice as high as figures commonly accepted among the scientific community, meaning that, from another perspective, the present-day extinction rate could be considered 200 times higher than normal, if not greater.