The sixth mass extinction—driven by human activity—is underway and accelerating, with extinction rates 10-100 times higher than background levels. The landmark 2019 IPBES Global Assessment estimated 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction, many within decades—a figure that remains the benchmark in 2025 assessments. While documented extinctions number in the hundreds since 1900 (e.g., recent additions like certain shrews and snails per IUCN updates), the “extinction debt” implies massive future losses if trends continue: projections under high-impact scenarios foresee hundreds of thousands to a million species vanishing by mid-century.
Drivers and 2025 Snapshot
Habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, invasives, and climate change dominate. IUCN Red List (2025) assesses ~172,000 species, with ~50,000 threatened—extrapolating to ~8 million total species yields the ~1M at-risk figure. Vertebrate populations declined ~70% since 1970; amphibians hit hardest.
Ecosystem Unraveling
Loss cascades: pollinators vanish → crop failures; predators gone → prey explosions then crashes. Tipping points (e.g., Amazon dieback) amplify collapse, threatening services like clean water and soil fertility.
Conservation successes exist (e.g., green turtle rebound), but overall acceleration warns of irreversible unraveling by 2050 under business-as-usual.
The sixth extinction isn’t distant—it’s now, with millions potentially lost in decades. Can aggressive protection reverse the tide, or will ecosystems collapse beyond repair?