Deforestation, climate change, and overfishing could lead to a “mass extinction event”, according to a landmark study by an international scientific team, but there is still time for the large-scale changes that would be needed to avert catastrophe. “When you look at the range of unsustainable things we are doing to the planet—changing the atmosphere, global warming, massively depleting fisheries, driving species to extinction—we realize we have a decade or two,” Duke University biologist and conservationist Stuart Pimm told Reuters. “If we keep on doing what we are doing, by the end of the century our planet will really be a pretty horrendous place.” Extinction rates are now at 1,000 times their normal level, but “with the right intervention, the crisis could yet be averted,” Reuters reports. “Conservation, education, and ‘targeted preservation efforts’ could slow down extinction rates.”(h/t iPolitics.com)
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