A mass extinction is not just one specie disappearing. By definition, it is when 75% of the world’s species go extinct. The Earth has had five so far, and none have been caused by humans. This may change soon, though. Since industrialization began in the 1800s, humans have been polluting the Earth, burning fossil fuels, heating up the atmosphere, spreading invasive species, consuming natural resources, and harming the oceans. As a result of this, many species are almost extinct, and many species are becoming endangered, and the world may soon face its sixth mass extinction. According to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there has been a 58% decrease in some vertebrate populations, and if this trend continues, then about ⅔ of these species might disappear by 2020.
For a few decades now, African elephants have been on the endangered list. They have been illegally hunted for their ivory tusks to benefit the ivory trade, and as a result of this, there are not many left in the wild. According to the Great Elephant Census, there are just 352,271 left in the countries that were surveyed, and according to the directors of the original Netflix documentary “The Ivory Game,” statistics show that 35,000 elephants are being killed a year, and that an elephant is killed every fifteen minutes. If this continues, elephants could go extinct soon.
Works Cited:
Page, Thomas. “‘The Ivory Game’: DiCaprio Documentary Tackles Illegal Trade.” CNN. Cable News Network, 03 Nov. 2016. Web. 05 Nov. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/03/africa/the-ivory-game-netflix/index.html>.