How many species are we losing to extinction each year?

Question

A recent documentary suggested 5000 per year for the last three years. I have been taken to task on this assertion in another forum and would like to know if it is correct.

Answer 1

how can they possibly know how many species we lose to extinction if they arent sure how many there were to be begin with?  5000 a year seems a little extreme to me, but hey maybe 5000 more are popping up every year too

Answer 2

You're right,especially the Bengal tigers.There're only about 200 examples left.There could be more than 5000 species are dissappeared.Now the dolphins.There're already people who are swept away by wars and famine.

Answer 3

The tropical rainforests cover just 2% of the Earth's land surface, they are home to two-thirds of all the living species on the planet.  Almost half of the world’s original four billion acres of rainforest are now gone. The lost area equals the combined size of Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada and Arizona."

. . . "in 1500, there were an estimated six to nine million indigenous people inhabiting the tropical rainforests of Brazil. By 1900, that number had dropped to a million. Today, there are less than 250,000 indigenous people left in Brazil."

. . . "man has recently increased nature’s "normal" extinction rate by 10,000%. Most of this increase is taking place in the rainforests."

. . . "by conservative estimates, 9,000 species are going extinct each year, most of them from the rainforests."

. . . "we are presently experiencing the largest mass extinction since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago; only this time it’s occurring at a much faster rate."

Answer 4

No. More like a few.

Answer 5

Starting approximately 100,000 years ago, and coinciding with an increase in the numbers and range of humans, species extinctions have increased to a rate unprecedented since the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event.[4] This is known as the Holocene extinction event and is at least the sixth such extinction event. Some experts have estimated that up to half of presently existing species may become extinct by 2100.

up to 20 percent of all living populations could become extinct within 30 years (by 2028).

Biologist E. O. Wilson estimated [5] in 2002 that if current rates of human destruction of the biosphere continue, one-half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in 100 years.[21] More significantly the rate of species extinctions at present is estimated at 100 to 1000 times "background" or average extinction rates in the evolutionary time scale of planet Earth;

hope dis helps!

Answer 6

None - there are no species that have gone extinct in over 5 years.

Quite the opposite is happening.  There are more species being discovered almost every day.

Answer 7

Wow, Hazim, great question. I don't have an answer but some of the people who have tried to have really stunk up the place. There are absolutely species going extinct every day, and others just being found. Good luck.

Answer 8

Since we have no idea what the true rate of extinction has been in the past, there is no way to gauge whether or not the rate is increasing or deacreasing.  Scientists are constantly identifying new species, but since identification of prehistoric species is dependent upon scattered fossil records, making any comparison of today's rates with historical rates is no more than wild guesswork.  Exinction is a function of evolution.  Without extinction, there would be no progression of species.  It's a simple, sad fact of life.

Answer 9

5000 per year is probably low by a factor of ten.  The UN estimate last year put it at about 3 per hour, greater than any mass extinction on record, but I've seen estimates as low as 3000/year.  The Bush Administration has made it bureaucratically impossible to get a species declared endangered, much less get accurate data.  Humans are on the list of course, with a population that outgrew the food supply three decades ago.  Estimates as recent as 2005 indicate that 60% of ecosystems have been degraded by human exploitation to the point where they no longer can benefit humans.  The recent explosion of new species being discovered and species thought extinct being rediscovered suggests displacement of whole populations on a massive scale.  Beside polar bears, we have the giant squid, the orangutang and many other important species fleeing for their lives, with no where to go.  To significantly change this picture would require a Manhattan Project scale effort.  Unfortunately, far too many people see the animals and plants sharing this planet with us as competitors, food, or a nuisance.