Extinction and Its Impacts
Extinction is the ceasing of a species to exist on this Earth. A species officially becomes extinct when all of the species no longer exists. A species is to become certainly extinct when there is an extremely small number of it and it is unable to reproduce to create more of itself. Therefore, we say a species is in for certain extinction if it cannot reproduce itself.
Extinctions occur at a great pace and species that we did not even know existed become extinct all the time. Scientists say that of all the species that existed on this Earth, 99.9 per cent are extinct now. It is predicted that a species becomes extinct every 20 minutes. This is an enormous 72 species lost in one day and about 26, 000 species every year. We are losing more and more species each year and scientists say this is partly our own fault.
A species that is still living is classified as extant. A species that is in danger of becoming extinct but it is still an extant species is called an endangered species. Endangered species are protected by law in many countries and it is a crime to hunt or intentionally kill these species.
Sometimes, humans deliberately make a species extinct for the benefit of humankind. This is called planned extinction. Many scientists are working on a pesticide that will contaminate and absolutely terminate the entire population of the malaria causing mosquitoes also known as the anopheles mosquito. Olivia Judson claims that she has found a specicide (a contaminating pesticide) which will knockout these mosquitoes by causing mutation and bringing out only the recessive genes. This will weaken the mosquito and cause it to die. She justifies this by saying that making this species extinct she can save over one million lives a year and so it is a humanitarian cause.
Fossils help us gain evidence for extinction. Bones and DNA of animals and plants have been discovered that is unlike any bones or DNA in the current time. Fossils can give us an almost accurate
Extinctions occur at a great pace and species that we did not even know existed become extinct all the time. Scientists say that of all the species that existed on this Earth, 99.9 per cent are extinct now. It is predicted that a species becomes extinct every 20 minutes. This is an enormous 72 species lost in one day and about 26, 000 species every year. We are losing more and more species each year and scientists say this is partly our own fault.
A species that is still living is classified as extant. A species that is in danger of becoming extinct but it is still an extant species is called an endangered species. Endangered species are protected by law in many countries and it is a crime to hunt or intentionally kill these species.
Sometimes, humans deliberately make a species extinct for the benefit of humankind. This is called planned extinction. Many scientists are working on a pesticide that will contaminate and absolutely terminate the entire population of the malaria causing mosquitoes also known as the anopheles mosquito. Olivia Judson claims that she has found a specicide (a contaminating pesticide) which will knockout these mosquitoes by causing mutation and bringing out only the recessive genes. This will weaken the mosquito and cause it to die. She justifies this by saying that making this species extinct she can save over one million lives a year and so it is a humanitarian cause.
Fossils help us gain evidence for extinction. Bones and DNA of animals and plants have been discovered that is unlike any bones or DNA in the current time. Fossils can give us an almost accurate