World's nature ‘becoming extinct at fastest rate on record’

The world’s animals and plants are being killed off by humans faster than new ones can evolve, for the first time since dinosaurs became extinct, experts have warned. Speaking ahead of two next week on the state of British and European wildlife, Simon Stuart, from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, admitted that the rate of extinction had not slowed. Previously research has shown that world was currently in the midst of a “sixth great extinction” of species, which was being driven by natural habitat destruction, hunting, increasing number of alien predators, disease and climate change. Some conservationists had hoped that rate of loss had been stemmed by the natural evolution of species. But on Monday Mr Stuart, chairman of IUCN’s species survival commission, admitted that point had now “almost certainly” been crossed. “Measuring the rate at which new species evolve is difficult, but there’s no question that the current extinction rates are faster than that; I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “All the evidence is he’s right. “Some people claim it already is that … things can only have deteriorated because of the drivers of the losses, such as habitat loss and climate change, all getting worse.” In its last biodiversity report in 2004, the body said warned that Earth was losing species at a rate comparable to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Extinctions, it said, were happening up to 1,000 times faster than the natural “background” rate. Nearly 16,000 species were listed as under threat or disappearing, with more than 200 of already described as “possibly extinct” and almost 3,000 “critically endangered”. No formal calculations have been published since then but experts told the paper that rates had almost certainly increased. …

World’s nature ‘becoming extinct at fastest rate on record’, conservationists warn