The Sixth Extinction – Plant and animal species—as well as fungi, microbes and bacteria—are disappearing at a staggering rate, unprecedented in the planet’s history. Each year, 27,000 species are lost forever. That’s three every hour.
Every year, we also destroy 10 million hectares of rainforest (in Borneo, Amazonia and Africa) in order to make way for oil palms and fields of soy.
The mangrove forests and coral barriers, home to numerous species and offering vital protection to the coasts, have already been reduced by 35% and 20% respectively.
In 2007, honey bees, which pollinate many of the vegetables we eat, began suffering mass die-offs. In Europe, mortality rates were around 20%, while in the United States they reached over 40% during the 2013/2014 winter.
A study carried out in 2011 by researchers at the University of Exeter predicted the permanent disappearance of one in ten species by the end of the century. We are witnessing what is becoming known as the sixth mass extinction. During the fifth, 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs died out. Yet there is a substantial difference between this current extinction and those of the past. This global ecological crisis is being caused by humans.
In the last 70 years, we have destroyed three-quarters of the agro-biodiversity carefully selected by farmers over the previous 10,000 years.
For more information visit www.slowfood.com and see what you can do to help
