Extinction often proceeds slowly over thousands to millions of years, but through intense human activities, we have put our foot on the extinction accelerator. The current rate of species extinction is at least tens to hundreds of times higher than natural background rates due to human with drastic consequences for all life on our planet. Recent studies also suggest that extinctions could cascade through ecological dependencies between species in an ecosystem, setting off waves of secondary extinctions and amplifying the effects of environmental degradation. As ecosystems are built on intricate networks of connections between different species, the real impact of extinction may be much greater than we realize. This technical background report for the 2023 edition of the Interconnected Disaster Risks report analyses the root causes, drivers, impacts and potential solutions for the accelerating extinctions risk tipping point our world is facing through an analysis of academic literature, media articles and expert interviews.
Authors
- Pages
- 38
- Published in
- Germany
