Causes of extinction (click here) have prehistorically been dominated by natural earth processes such as geological transformation of the Earth's crust and major climatic oscillations, as well as species interactions;
however, since the ascent of modern man during the Holocene, the causes
of extinction have been dominated by the activities of humans....
...Darwin was the first to fully articulate the concepts of speciation and extinction as applied to natural succession, although he never used the terms evolution or extinction. (Darwin. 1859)...
Darwin coined the words natural succession. Those are important words as well. It defines clearly the ability of any species to adapt to a changing climate. There are countless examples of such succession. But, with abrupt climate change that natural succession is interrupted and the species have questionable outcomes.
There is a very long list of anthropogenic impacts on the natural world that accelerates the deterioration of Earth's biological wealth.
...The most important causal anthropogenic activities are habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution and the introduction of alien species (non-native) to an environment. Habitat destruction elements include agricultural land conversion, deforestation, overgrazing and urbanization; within these activities the process of habitat fragmentation is a sometimes hidden cause of major biodiversity loss. Overexploitation consists of intensive mineral and other geological resource extraction, overharvesting of wild flora and fauna (mainly for human food), hunting or fishing threatened fauna and killing of threatened fauna for herbal or cultural extracts. Pollution impacts include buildup of toxic atmospheric substances, discharge of water pollutants into natural water reserves, chemical contamination of soils and noise pollution....
...Darwin was the first to fully articulate the concepts of speciation and extinction as applied to natural succession, although he never used the terms evolution or extinction. (Darwin. 1859)...
Darwin coined the words natural succession. Those are important words as well. It defines clearly the ability of any species to adapt to a changing climate. There are countless examples of such succession. But, with abrupt climate change that natural succession is interrupted and the species have questionable outcomes.
There is a very long list of anthropogenic impacts on the natural world that accelerates the deterioration of Earth's biological wealth.
...The most important causal anthropogenic activities are habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution and the introduction of alien species (non-native) to an environment. Habitat destruction elements include agricultural land conversion, deforestation, overgrazing and urbanization; within these activities the process of habitat fragmentation is a sometimes hidden cause of major biodiversity loss. Overexploitation consists of intensive mineral and other geological resource extraction, overharvesting of wild flora and fauna (mainly for human food), hunting or fishing threatened fauna and killing of threatened fauna for herbal or cultural extracts. Pollution impacts include buildup of toxic atmospheric substances, discharge of water pollutants into natural water reserves, chemical contamination of soils and noise pollution....
