Extinction

There are many reasons for animals to go extinct. Natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes and giant meteorites hitting the Earth are just some of them. There have been 5 mass extinctions on Earth. Scientists claim that now we’re facing the sixth one.

Meteorites are asteroids so big that they survive the scorching heat while hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere and hit the ground. If an asteroid vaporizes during its fiery passage through the air, it becomes a meteor. This is what we actually call a shooting star!

Many theories exist about the reason they became extinct. Most experts believe the cause was either a cooling of the climate, plate tectonic movement, or massive volcanic activity.

Some scientists think that 65 million years ago a 6-mile-long meteorite killed 70% of Earth’s species, including dinosaurs.

Humans are wiping out species much faster than nature creates them. Scientists claim that the sixth extinction is already in progress.

The main reasons for it are: habitat destruction, invasion, pollution, human overpopulation, hunting, fishing, and gathering way above our actual needs.

Oil spills can cause the death of thousands of fish, many of which are already on the endangered species list. They also affect seabirds because the oil sticks to their feathers and they aren’t able to fly.

Scientists say we are in the sixth and most devastating of all extinctions, the Holocene extinction. Through deforestation, over-fishing, hunting, and general pollution of the planet, humans are the largest contributor to the fastest extinction yet.

In 1994, biologists predicted that by the year 2030, 20% of all species would be extinct, and, in 100 years, humans would have eliminated 50% of all species. In fact, human impact is increasing Earth’s natural extinction rate by between 100 and 1000 times.

Was abundant along the coasts of Japan and Korea and would breed on their beaches every mating season. These animals were killed for their skin to make leather, bones for magic medicines, and fat for oil.

The Japanese killed about 3000 of these animals yearly until the 1900s when an attempt to protect them was made. Efforts were futile and the last Japanese Sea Lion died in the 1950s.

A keystone species is what we call a species that a large amount of other species rely on to stay alive. Bees are one of those.

Einstein famously said about them: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have 4 years of life left, no more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Honeybees are responsible for pollinating a third of the world’s food, not only for humans but for animals as well. In the last 10 years, however, there has been a sharp decrease of 30% in honeybee population worldwide. Without honeybees, our Earth will lose millions of species.