The Sixth Mass Extinction

Earth has lived through five mass extinction events in its 4.5-billion-year history. The most recent wiped out the dinosaurs sixty-six million years ago. Scientists now argue we are in the sixth — and the first ever caused by a single species.

The 2019 UN biodiversity assessment delivered a stark summary: approximately one million species face extinction within decades. This includes forty percent of amphibians, one-third of reef-building corals, and roughly ten percent of insects.