sixth extinction
Current biodiversity collapse
The sixth extinction refers to the current, ongoing mass extinction of species, driven primarily by human activity—habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, and overexploitation.
It follows five previous mass extinctions in Earth's history, the most recent being the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Unlike those events, this one unfolds over centuries rather than geological time: Scientists warn we're in the midst of a sixth extinction.
Also called the Holocene extinction or Anthropocene extinction.
- biodiversityRange of life forms
- endangeredAt risk of extinction
- species lossDisappearance of organism types
- habitat destructionEliminating natural living spaces
- climate changePlanetary atmospheric transformation
Anthropocene · die-off · collapse · vanishing · wildlife · natural world · web of life · deforestation · coral bleaching · ecosystem · dinosaurs · asteroid · ice age · Holocene · threatened · conservation · overhunting · invasive species
- extinctiondodo, died out, passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger, thylacine
sixth extinctionCambrian explosion
Sudden appearance of complex life
rewilding · ecological restoration · de-extinction · species recovery · species reintroduction
sixth, sixes, sixfold, sixteen, sixteenth, sixty, sixtieth, extinction, extinct