By UN Environment
Life on earth has always been marked by periods of extinction. 65 million years ago dinosaurs were wiped out, making way for other mammals to evolve, while before them the vertebrate species known as the trilobite dominated the planet.
These extinctions were believed to be sudden and caused by major climatic disruptions, such as sea level falls, methane eruptions, and in some cases collisions with asteroids.
Now a major extinction event is happening before us due not to any cataclysmic event but an unprecedented and ongoing pressure on the environment by humans. There an estimated 7.7 billion people today, making us the most populous large mammal on Earth. Read more>>
