Holocene Extinction

Over the past two decades, scientists have grown increasingly worried about the ongoing extinction of plants and animals which is now occurring at an unprecedented rate, the so-called Holocene Extinction. Estimates suggest that this extinction rate is occurring anywhere between 100 and 1000 times the natural background level of species die off, putting it into a category approaching the major extinction periods of the past. The major difference, however, is that this modern die off is being caused by human activity in the form of pollution, industrial agriculture, war, deforestation and habitat destruction and fragmentation, over fishing and over hunting, and likely in the near future climate change will likely also have a devastating impact on species around the globe.

We are members of an interconnected web of life. Because of the degree to which it is being disrupted, including highly significant species like bees and bats, all life on this planet is being threatened. Turning things around will not happen on a case by case basis, ie save the spotted owl, as this destruction is occurring at a systems level.

This is not some distant catastrophe. It's already unfolding. As someone who is learning to grow my own food, I have discovered that due to the rise of industrial agriculture and the so called green revolution which favors market domination, centralized production, and monoculture crops, rather than the diversity that as been cultivated since the beginning of agriculture, literally thousands of varieties of native agricultural species have been lost over the past century. Of course, that loss is just one small corner of the whole picture. We have made ourselves dependent upon a way of life that may ultimately kill us and much of the life on the planet, unless we find a way to change. If this fact isn't enough to make individuals start thinking very seriously about creatively and radically shifting our lives, I'm not sure what will.

I have included in this lens some videos and links around the mass extinction we are now facing.