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Extinctions In 2018

Posted on 4th Janaury 2019

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This report on USA Today summarises the species which became extinct in 2018. These are just species which we know about, and the list does not include any insects, bacteria, viruses, or even fish.

There is another report on Mashable, on the same subject.

Although there is no proof that all the listed extinctions were caused by human activity, we are the prime suspect in most cases.

Some people may argue that extinction is a natural phenomenon which has occurred throughout our planet's history, but the pace of species loss is currently higher than ever before (including the time when dinosaurs became extinct). Part of the problem is that evolution is being hampered by lack of available habitat for evolving species to occupy, due to agriculture, mining, and human habitation, so new species are not replacing those lost. Every year there is less wild habitat on our planet.

Do you really want your descendants to grow up in a world where there are almost no other species; worse still, for humanity to also become extinct because we wiped out the species which made our ecosystem functional and our planet habitable?

If you want to get an idea of what our future will probably look like, watch Soylent Green (made in 1973, but amazingly prescient).