Are mass extinctions inevitable?
It is well known from the fossil record that there have been a large number of extinction events of various magnitudes. Some famous examples include the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and the Great Dying 250 million years ago where almost everything died. It has been postulated that mass extinctions occur every ~30 or ~60 million years. Most explanations for these events are exogenous – some external astrophysical or geological cataclysm like an asteroid slamming into the Yucatan 65 million years ago or large scale volcanic eruptions. However, as I watch the news every night, I’m beginning to wonder if life itself is unstable and prone to wild fluctuations. We are currently in the midst of a mass extinction and it is being caused by us. However, we are not separate from the ecosystem so in effect, the system is causing it’s own extinction. I listen to a number of podcasts of science radio shows (e.g. CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, ABC’s The
