Questions for Learning from Past Extinctions

Questions for “Learning from Past Extinctions”

You will find this lecture here:

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/biodiversity-age-humans?utm_source=BioInteractive+News&utm_campaign=390ec8de44-BioInteractive_News_Vol_3310_28_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_98b2f5c6ba-390ec8de44-69460237

1. How many species have humans already driven to extinction?

2. What fraction of Earth’s wild animals have we killed in the last 40 years?

3. Up until now, how many mass extinctions have occurred in Earth’s past?

4. How can we compare the current mass extinction data with that from previous mass extinctions?

5. How does fossil data tell us about species’ extinction rates from the past?

6. How do we know about modern species and their risk of extinction?

7. What is meant by the “background” extinction rate?

8. What would be a “normal” extinction rate of extinction for mammals, and how does it compare to the actual rate of extinction today?

9. If we keep going as we are (that is, “business-as-usual”), how long will it take to wipe out 75% of species, like in the Big 5 extinctions? (This is the bad news…)

10. So, what’s the good news?