From a scientific point of view, the extinction of species is recognized as a significant event in the evolutionary process of the planet and its species. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a mass extinction is a short period of geological time in which a high percentage of different species become extinct.

Previously, planet Earth has experienced five of these events, the last one occurring 65.5 million years ago when the dinosaurs were wiped out. However, various experts believe that it is currently going through the sixth large-scale extinction process of species. .

‘Environmental drivers of the first major animal extinction across the Ediacaran White Sea-Nama transition’, a study conducted by researchers at the University of California Riverside and Virginia Tech University and published in the scientific journal, PNAS , delved into this ongoing phenomenon that It directly affects the biodiversity of the Earth, taking previous extinction events as a reference.

The research concluded that this new period of mass extinction, like the previous five, is occurring due to the great changes in environmental conditions that affect the planet. On this occasion, the mechanism causing the extinction is attributed to the decrease in oxygen availability.

According to the study, this suggests that abiotic controls have had significant impacts on diversity patterns throughout the more than 570 million year history of animals on this planet.

For its part, the WWF mentions that unlike the other events that caused the population decline of multiple animal species, the planet’s environmental changes are being caused by human activity and not by natural phenomena.

In addition, they highlight the unsustainable use of land, water and energy as other factors that have led the phenomenon to this point.

Currently, 40% of all land is used for food production. While agriculture is also responsible for 90% of global deforestation and represents 70% of the planet’s freshwater use, significantly altering habitats and devastating the species that live in those places.

“It is evident that the places and ways in which food is produced are one of the greatest man-made threats to the extinction of species and our ecosystems. To make matters worse, the production and consumption of unsustainable food contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing an increase in atmospheric temperatures and wreaking havoc around the world,” says this organization.

Some of the WWF’s recommendations to mitigate the effect of this period of extinction include following the Paris Agreement, conserving 30% of land and water by 2030, agreeing on new global biodiversity goals in which prioritize funding for implementation and engage communities and people in higher level policies.