With the human population expected to reach 9-10 billion by the end of the century and the planet in the middle of its sixth mass extinction — this time due to human activity — the next few years are critical in conserving Earth’s precious biodiversity. The cause of the Sixth Extinction, Homo sapiens, means we can continue on the path to our own extinction, or, preferably, we modify our behavior toward the global ecosystem of which we are still very much a part.

At a casual glance, the physically caused extinction events of the past might seem to have little or nothing to tell us about the current Sixth Extinction, which is a human-caused event. For there is little doubt that humans are the direct cause of ecosystem stress and species destruction in the modern world through transformation of the landscape, overexploitation of species, pollution, and the introduction of alien species

Startlingly beautiful photo!
This reminds me of something I read recently about global warming: while the earth's temp has fluctuated before, it has never done so with the vast throngs of people who now live on it.
Also, I live in the midwest USA, which was virtually unplowed just 200 years ago. By 1900, in just a couple of generations, the entire tallgrass prairie ecosystem was gone forever - perhaps the largest ecosystem ever to be wiped out in that brief a period.