LIVING THROUGH MASS EXTINCTION

YOU will hear the words “mass extinction events” more frequently in the years ahead. They are “scientific speak” for the widespread loss of plant and animal life.

Five major extinctions (and some minor ones) took place long before humans evolved between 439 and 65 million years ago. They appear to have happened when the earth’s systems were disrupted by volcanic or asteroid activity or by rapid changes to the ocean, the atmosphere or the climate.

The first event caused about 86% of existing species to die; the second killed 75% of sea organisms; the third exterminated 96% of all life, setting evolution back by 300 million years; the fourth eliminated 80% of species and the fifth accounted for 76% of what was then alive and coincided with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

By comparison, modern humans didn’t appear until about 160 000 years ago. Fast forward to the industrial revolution in England in about 1760, burning fossil fuels for energy. The emissions from the new factories polluted the air, causing serious health problems.

This didn’t seem to threaten the planet when the global population was small, but the website www. worl dome ters.info/worl d-population shows the world population stands at 7.6 billion. More people need more food, services, transport and “stuff”. Global markets are keen to meet every whim – for profit.

There are controls on air pollution nowadays, but industry and vehicles still emit more carbon dioxide than the planet can digest, leading to global warming.

Warnings of a possible sixth mass extinction event involving humans are now starting to reach the masses, but the solutions seem impossibly radical and costly and would mean the end of the affluent dream.

Meanwhile, sea ice and ice caps are melting, glaciers and permafrost are thawing, sea levels are rising – all signs that the planet is in trouble.

We are all guilty of over-stressing the earth by burning, polluting and wasting, but our leaders are even more culpable for ignoring the looming disaster and squabbling among themselves for short-term gain.