The misunderstood sixth mass extinction

2018/06/07 by Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich · 2 citations
Environmental Science · #Science and Climate Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.aau0191

openalex publication_date 2018/06/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Scientific misunderstanding about the nature and consequences of the sixth mass extinction has led to confusion among policy-makers and the public. Scientists agree that there have been five mass extinctions in the past 600 million years ([ 1 ][1]). Although scientists also agree that Earth is now

Citations

• Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?
• The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection
• Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction
• More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
• World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice

Cited by

• 21st century [wikipedia]
• Holocene [wikipedia]