The Sixth Extinction<\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/polar-bear-skull-tundra-1653393263-640x432.jpg\")
Polar Bear skull laying on ground in the tundra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMass extinction events take a long time. Regardless of whether we\u2019re currently in one right now or at the beginning, there are a lot of species going extinct at a much higher rate than normal. According to The Sixth Extinction \u2014 An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbest<\/a>, \u201cthe sixth extinction is predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.\u201d And who\u2019s to blame? Humans, of course. Kolbest states, \u201c…those of us alive today not only are witnessing one of the rarest events in life\u2019s history, we are also causing it.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Worst Part?<\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/baltimore-oriole-960848108-1100x640-1-640x372.jpg\")
A staggering 2.9 billion birds have gone extinct since the 1970s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe numbers predicted by scientists might actually be much more devastating. The International Union for Conservation of Nature<\/a> (IUCN) lists 42,100 species as threatened with extinction on their Red List of Threatened Species. However, it is estimated that thousands of species are data-deficient (DD), meaning there is not enough data to accurately determine their risk of extinction.<\/p>\nThis is extremely concerning as a recent study published in Communications Biology suggests that DD species as a group might be more threatened than those with sufficient data. For example, using machine learning-derived probabilities, predictions suggest 85 per cent of DD amphibians are likely to be threatened by extinction. It\u2019s not looking promising for mammals and reptiles either, with an estimated 50 per cent of these DD species heading towards extinction as well.<\/p>\n
How Can You and I Help?<\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/protect-wetlands-blanding-turtle-inaturalist-phone-mobile-2-1920x1280-1-640x427.jpg\")
Hundreds of square kilometres of Blanding\u2019s Turtle habitat have been protected thanks in part to observations of this turtle on iNaturalist.ca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nYou might already be thinking of it\u2026 the tool that allows everyday Canadians to become citizen scientists \u2014 iNaturalist.ca<\/a>! It is our gateway to understanding more about species across the globe and its use has never been more crucial than now. By uploading observations of living things, scientists are able to use this valuable data to map biodiversity. Just think\u2026 if millions of Canadians started to use iNaturalist.ca to record their observations in nature, many species would have the potential to become more understood.<\/p>\nLet\u2019s start today >> visit iNaturalist.ca!<\/a><\/h4>\nListen to this story (and more) in the CWF podcast, “Your Connection to Wildlife” ><\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have You Heard of the Sixth Extinction? And What Can We Do? Extinction \u2014 a daunting word most of us have heard since childhood. We all know what it meant…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":13043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[631,6],"tags":[959,5911,598],"class_list":["post-13042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-connect-with-nature","category-endangered-species","tag-biodiversity","tag-extinction","tag-inaturalist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13042"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13071,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042\/revisions\/13071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Mass extinction events take a long time. Regardless of whether we\u2019re currently in one right now or at the beginning, there are a lot of species going extinct at a much higher rate than normal. According to The Sixth Extinction \u2014 An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbest<\/a>, \u201cthe sixth extinction is predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.\u201d And who\u2019s to blame? Humans, of course. Kolbest states, \u201c…those of us alive today not only are witnessing one of the rarest events in life\u2019s history, we are also causing it.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers predicted by scientists might actually be much more devastating. The International Union for Conservation of Nature<\/a> (IUCN) lists 42,100 species as threatened with extinction on their Red List of Threatened Species. However, it is estimated that thousands of species are data-deficient (DD), meaning there is not enough data to accurately determine their risk of extinction.<\/p>\n This is extremely concerning as a recent study published in Communications Biology suggests that DD species as a group might be more threatened than those with sufficient data. For example, using machine learning-derived probabilities, predictions suggest 85 per cent of DD amphibians are likely to be threatened by extinction. It\u2019s not looking promising for mammals and reptiles either, with an estimated 50 per cent of these DD species heading towards extinction as well.<\/p>\n You might already be thinking of it\u2026 the tool that allows everyday Canadians to become citizen scientists \u2014 iNaturalist.ca<\/a>! It is our gateway to understanding more about species across the globe and its use has never been more crucial than now. By uploading observations of living things, scientists are able to use this valuable data to map biodiversity. Just think\u2026 if millions of Canadians started to use iNaturalist.ca to record their observations in nature, many species would have the potential to become more understood.<\/p>\nThe Worst Part?<\/h2>\n
How Can You and I Help?<\/h2>\n
Let\u2019s start today >> visit iNaturalist.ca!<\/a><\/h4>\n
Listen to this story (and more) in the CWF podcast, “Your Connection to Wildlife” ><\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"