10 Facts About Holocene extinction

Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction, is an ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch as a result of human activity.

Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large land animals known as megafauna, starting at the end of the last glacial period.

The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century, with human population growth, increasing per capita consumption and meat production being the primary drivers of the mass extinction, and deforestation, overfishing, ocean acidification, the destruction of wetlands, and the decline in amphibian populations being a few broader examples of global biodiversity loss.

The Holocene extinction is known as the "sixth extinction", as it is possibly the sixth mass extinction event, after the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events, the Late Devonian extinction, the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

However, all these authors agree that there is a modern biodiversity crisis with population declines affecting numerous species, and that a future anthropogenic mass Holocene extinction event is a big risk.

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Ruddiman and Ellis' research paper in 2009 makes the case that early farmers involved in systems of agriculture used more land per capita than growers later in the Holocene extinction, who intensified their labor to produce more food per unit of area ; arguing that agricultural involvement in rice production implemented thousands of years ago by relatively small populations have created significant environmental impacts through large-scale means of deforestation.

Holocene extinction argued that the patterns of the significant decline of CO2 levels during the last ice age of the Pleistocene inversely correlates to the Holocene where there have been dramatic increases of CO2 around 8000 years ago and CH4 levels 3000 years after that.

The correlation between the decrease of CO2 in the Pleistocene and the increase of it during the Holocene extinction implies that the causation of this spark of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere was the growth of human agriculture during the Holocene extinction such as the anthropogenic expansion of land use and irrigation.

The timing of South American megafaunal Holocene extinction appears to precede human arrival, although the possibility that human activity at the time impacted the global climate enough to cause such an Holocene extinction has been suggested.

Holocene extinction's called biodiversity loss a "silent killer" as dangerous as global warming, but said it had received little attention by comparison.