Animal Species

Animal species are decreasing at an alarming rate, and many of it has to do with human interference to animals habitats. In the article “Era of ‘Biological Annihilation’ Is Underway, Scientists Warn”(2017) by Tatiana Scholssberg she explains the way in which 2 Stanford University Professors and one professor from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México wrote their study and the way they worded and put their ideas together on the topic of global loss of animal species: It wouldn’t be ethical right now not to speak in this strong language to call attention to the severity of the problem.” The destruction humans are doing to animals is detrimental, and is causing animals to go decrease in population at such a high speed and these 3 professors take it upon themselves to make this issue sound as horrendous as it should.
Throughout the beginning to mid part of the article Scholssberg explains how fast animal populations have decreased, she uses specific numbers to show at what speed these populations are actually decreasing by. Such as cheetas as se mentions have about 7000 members left than they had before any major destruction was made to their habitats and them. She further explains how it was difficult for the 3 professors from UNAM and Stanford to gather their information. Since different scientists have distinct definitions of what population means, it would be hard to show how population loss is affecting different species of animals.
When scientists are looking into animal population loss they usually see a fragment of how much the animal species population has been decreasing and not necessarily the whole picture regarding all animal species as explained by Scholssberg. She mentions that “previous estimates of global extinction rates have been too low, in part because scientists have been too focused on the complete extinction of a species” which does not “generate enough public concern,” and lends the impression that many species are not severely threatened, or that mass extinction is a distant catastrophe.”

Scholssberg mentions that the 3 professors whos study she was reviewing took a different route when discussing the decrease of various animal species, which helped them come to the conclusion that “the disappearance of entire populations, and the decrease of the number of individuals within a population,” are both equally important but usually people don’t see the big picture in the decrease of various animal species.
As mentioned earlier many of the decreases in the animal population are because of human activity. Such as climate change and the constant exploitation of animals habitats. To help sort of balance this out Scholssberg mentioned in her article that “some species have been able to rebound when some of these pressures are taken away.” By this, I’m sure she means that when humans stop interfering with an animals habitat, animals are more likely to live a more fruitful life.
Humans may just really be the toxic ones, over exploiting and taking over animals habitats. There will be a long-lasting impact with these animal populations and if we don’t stop now, when will we?