Episode 55 - The "Sixth Extinction" (Modern Biodiversity Crisis)

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

Science, Natural Sciences, Education, Earth Sciences, Science:natural Sciences

4.8 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2019

⏱️ 141 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Usually, when we talk about mass extinction, we’re referring to events long past. But scary levels of extinction are a fact of our current world, as well. So much so that current events have been labeled the "Sixth Extinction.” In this episode, we discuss just how bad our current ecological crisis is, what’s causing it, and whether or not it truly deserves to be called a mass extinction. We also discuss what’s already being done – and what we can all do – to counteract catastrophe. It’s a depressing one, folks, but all isn’t lost. Stay informed and stay hopeful! In the news: a new island, ancient turtle cancer, megalodon extinction, and that one Archaeopteryx feather. Time markers: Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:07:30Main discussion, Part 1: 00:44:30Main discussion, Part 2: 01:21:00 Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/ Follow and Support us on: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPCFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org. Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Common Descent Podcast.
0:19.0	Hello, Will. Hello, David. And hello listeners and welcome to episode 55 of the Common Descent podcast, the saddest episode ever. Yeah, yeah. It's going gonna get a little depressing. As is our tradition, every
0:40.7	episode that ends in a number five is an extinction episode. And in the past, we have focused
0:45.6	mostly on specific extinctions from Earth history. This episode, we are focusing on a specific
0:53.0	extinction from Earth's present.
0:56.4	Indeed.
0:57.3	We are talking about what is sometimes called the Holocene extinction.
1:03.1	What has also been dubbed the Anthropocene extinction, more on that later.
1:06.7	What is sometimes simply known as the Biodiversity Crisis,
1:11.5	but which has been very catchily titled,
1:13.9	The Sixth Extinction.
1:16.1	Yeah, and that one just is so ominous.
1:19.1	It is, in reference to the Big Five, the Big Five Mass Extinctions,
1:22.8	which we've talked about before,
1:24.2	the five biggest extinction events in the history of animal life on planet
1:29.2	Earth, at least to our knowledge, the current biodiversity decline on our planet has been
1:37.6	colloquially come to be referred to as the sixth extinction. We live in a time where we are seeing animals and plants and other organisms going extinct
1:49.3	at a rate that is unprecedented in human history and potentially almost unprecedented in history,
1:59.0	period.
1:59.4	Yeah.
2:00.6	So buckle in for a fun time here again on the Common Ascent podcast.
2:08.6	Get your tissues ready.
	...

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