Sixth Mass Extinction

Sixth Mass Extinction, what would it look like?

There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence. Wow, beat you weren't ready for that? This is the bad news at the center of a new study by a group of scientists including Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.   From the study, the accelerated rate of mammals extinction is 15 to 100 times as fast as the new fast rate from the past. We never experienced such a rapid rate there is general agreement among scientists that extinction rates have reached levels unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago.  In a handful of times in the past 500 million years, 50 to more than 90% of all species on Earth have disappeared in a geological blink of the eye.

Guess we best get on that True North Course Mates, times running thin. Notably habitat loss, over-exploitation for economic gain, Earth's climate, toxic nuclear waste, manufacturing pollution, (60% of China's drinking water is toxic) ocean pollution combined with radiation discharge, that alone is the worst human disaster we ever created.  In the meantime, the researchers hope their work will inform conservation efforts, the maintenance of ecosystem services and public policy.

Give that an Amen and\or Aye


Stanford researcher declares

Stanford

 

Life At The Brink

About the Show

It’s a mystery on a global scale: five times in Earth’s past, life has been nearly extinguished, the vast majority of plant and animal species annihilated in a geologic instant. The Permian-Triassic extinction event about 250 million years ago was the deadliest, more than 90% of all species perished.  What triggered these dramatic events?  And what might they tell us about the fate of our world? 

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Smithsonian Channel

 

Bird Flu Outbreak

After this, you'll be asking what's for dinner?  In many cases on the table it's chicken but since Dec 19, 2014, a number mix of turkeys and chickens is at a staggering 46,239,793 affected birds of Avian influenza and tens of millions have been euthanized.  The H5N8 virus originated in Asia and spread rapidly along wild bird migratory pathways during 2014, including the Pacific flyway.  In the Pacific flyway where the first cases found in both Oregon and Washington the H5N8 virus has mixed with North American avian influenza viruses, creating new mixed-origin viruses.  Wild Bird Findings confirmed by USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

While its most highly pathogenic strain (H5N1) had been spreading throughout Asia since 2003, avian influenza reached Europe in 2005, and the Middle East, as well as Africa, the following year.  On January 22, 2012, China reported its second human death due to bird flu in a month following other fatalities in Vietnam and Cambodia.

CDC considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in U.S. birds and poultry to be low at this time because infections with avian influenza viruses are rare and – when they occur – these viruses have not spread easily to other people.  However, it’s possible that human infections with HPAI viruses associated with these outbreaks in birds may occur at some time.

The United States is facing a temporary disruption in the supply of eggs due to the Avian Flu, 25% of America's industrial egg product production offline.

USDA H5 HPAI Reports

 13 WHO TV