[캐나다 한국일보] The 6th great death is already underway

Ahead of the 6th mass extinction event, which is occurring at the fastest rate in Earth’s history, we looked at the previous four events last week. This week we look at the most recent mass extinction event, the fifth, and the sixth extinction.

After the fourth disappeared 200 million years ago, the Earth regained peace. Over 140 million years, several species appeared and disappeared, continuing the natural process of evolution. Dinosaurs appeared and established themselves as top predators, and mammals also began to thrive in the gap. Then, 66 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers hit the Earth on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

A crater with a diameter of 160 km is to be found. After the impact, rocks and debris that turned into a fireball scattered into the sky, followed by a heat wave and a 1,500 meter high tsunami that swept the land and sea. It had the power of 1 billion nuclear bombs. After that there were clouds of dense gas and dust that covered the sky, blocking the sunlight for several years. Photosynthesis became impossible and plants died first, followed by herbivores and carnivores. The temperature dropped and the entire Earth froze. Most life has disappeared. Some scholars argue that before the asteroid hit, the diversity of life on Earth had already been greatly reduced and the risk of extinction had increased, but others argue that the an asteroid strike has brought about the crisis. The difference between the 5th disaster is that it happened much faster than before, and the direct cause was the extinction of an asteroid outside the Earth. Nevertheless, it is assumed that it happened over thousands of years.

So what about the 6th great death that is going on right now? 12,000 years ago, as global temperatures left the Ice Age and entered the founding Holocene epoch, mankind began an agricultural revolution. The predictable climate made agriculture and ranching possible.

But, although it was a blessing, it was also the beginning of a disaster. With the expansion of agriculture, civilization and technology advanced, and mankind became nature’s primary predator. As a result, 10,000 years ago, humans made up only 1% of the mammal biomass on Earth, but now they make up 34%, and include stock, they make up 97-99%. In the wild, 97-99% of mammals are already extinct, with only about 1% remaining. Insects have also decreased by 75% over the past 30 years. Not only the population but also the number of extinct species is thought to exceed 1,000.

According to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), more than 80,000 species are in danger of extinction. The rate of extinction of species is 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than the rate of natural extinction. Compared to the speed of the 5th mass extinction caused by a large meteorite impact, it is tens to hundreds of times faster.

image earth.com

The current extinction crisis is caused by human activity and unsustainable economic structures. The reasons for the lack of resources are due to the use of land and water resources based on natural use, and climate change due to the use of carbon energy such as oil. Currently, 40% of the world’s land is used for food production, most of it as monocrop agriculture. To achieve this, toxic herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers have become necessary, and the land has become so polluted that it is impossible to coexist with other living things. As 90% of deforestation worldwide is done to secure agricultural land, the habitat of wild animals and plants is gradually decreasing, which is a major reason for the decline in populations and species. Furthermore, the final blow of extinction is being prepared as average temperatures rise.

Scientists say that 99.9% of the species that appeared in the history of the Earth have become extinct. One day millions of current species will follow suit. The human species known as Homo sapiens will be no different. However, he is even more unusual because he urges his orders faster, perhaps on purpose, on his own.

Stories like this make us even worse. Humanity somehow found its own identity and gathered knowledge to explain the many mysteries of the universe and understand the quantum world. Thanks to the use of all kinds of technology and resources, more people than ever have escaped starvation. The tables of people in developed countries have become the tables of ancient empires. Foods from all over the world that were once hard to find are now on our tables as usual, to the extent that region or season has no meaning. She flies in the sky and runs like the wind over sea and land. Humanity, which has ascended to the position of a god through wrong magic developed only for immediate gain without considering sustainability, is disappearing due to the black magic it has to develop.