{"id":1237,"date":"2018-06-10T23:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T03:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2018-10-28T13:55:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T17:55:52","slug":"are-we-seeing-the-first-signs-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction-of-earthly-life-forms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1237","title":{"rendered":"ARE WE SEEING THE FIRST SIGNS OF THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION OF EARTHLY LIFE FORMS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

THERE HAVE \u00a0BEEN FIVE MASS EXTINCTIONS OF LIVING CREATURES ON \u00a0EARTH<\/p>\n

\u2026MANY SCIENTISTS THINK WE ARE NOW IN THE MIDST OF THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION<\/div>\n
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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 2018<\/div>\n
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A strange thing happened in our farm pond around \u00a0the year 1970. \u00a0 A \u00a0remarkable event which \u00a0has become a singular event.<\/div>\n
A chilling event.<\/div>\n
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It was \u00a0midsummer and \u00a0the pond \u00a0was thriving. \u00a0Seemed that was \u00a0the way things should be\u2026the way things had been<\/div>\n
for my lifetime. \u00a0The painted turtles were breeding like crazy over on the east side of the 7 acre pond. \u00a0Many resting like<\/div>\n
nude sunbathers on floating \u00a0logs and pieces of \u00a0fence rails we there into the pond for that \u00a0purpose. \u00a0The big Snapping turtle<\/div>\n
came out to breed as usual in the midsummer sun. \u00a0Primeval and menacing to some observers. \u00a0 Intelligent and \u00a0familiar<\/div>\n
to us for she \u00a0had been here long \u00a0before \u00a0we were even born. \u00a0Her diet of the odd duckling was sad but the duck \u00a0and goose<\/div>\n
population was healthy. \u00a0And wiggling \u00a0through the aquatic life was a myriad of leeches whose \u00a0diet was any \u00a0of us with the<\/div>\n
courage to swim \u00a0in the pond and here I include muskrats, dogs \u00a0and \u00a0human \u00a0beings. \u00a0Easy \u00a0to remove with a little salt.<\/div>\n
Disturbing if yanked \u00a0off for those leeches were able to inject some kind of anti-coagulant. \u00a0When I pulled one off \u00a0Marjorie\u2019s<\/div>\n
foot a \u00a0thin stream \u00a0of blood \u00a0oozed \u00a0forth for some time. \u00a0Not deadly. \u00a0But an illustration of the Darwinian world of<\/div>\n
nature \u201cred in tooth and \u00a0claw\u201d. \u00a0The pond was alive with things as tiny as water siders and as big \u00a0as the coyotes whe \u00a0left their turds<\/div>\n
of rabbit \u00a0hair here and there just to let us know their presence.<\/div>\n
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In short the pond \u00a0was \u00a0normal\u2026.abounding in \u00a0life.<\/div>\n
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But something was strange over \u00a0at the western edge where the big pond \u00a0drained to the smaller pond (Big Snappers home) \u00a0and from thence<\/div>\n
the water worked its way to the Speed \u00a0River and eventually to the magnificent Great River. \u00a0Everything made sense.<\/div>\n
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Except. \u00a0I can see them in mind\u2019s eye to this day. \u00a0 Something odd was \u00a0happening to the frogs. \u00a0 There were so \u00a0many of them.<\/div>\n
Clustered at the pond exit drain \u00a0there were so many juvenile leopard frogs that the pond water seemed \u00a0to have been \u00a0suddenly<\/div>\n
consumed. \u00a0 Hundreds of them \u00a0All about the \u00a0same age. \u00a0 The \u00a0recent crop that had hatched \u00a0from the frog jelly in spring time.<\/div>\n
I had never seen \u00a0so many clustered at one spot. \u00a0All looking directly at me. \u00a0Not croaking\u2026not \u00a0scattering, no \u00a0diving. \u00a0They just<\/div>\n
floated there looking at me.<\/div>\n
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Now we \u00a0had always had \u00a0a \u00a0large frog population. \u00a0 Enough frogs to feed each other (they had \u00a0a \u00a0cannibal gene), to feed the snake population, and \u00a0enough<\/div>\n
to fill the bellies of the Great Blue herons who paid a regular visit with their stiletto beaks\u2026spear fishing for frogs. \u00a0 Lots \u00a0of \u00a0frogs \u00a0every year.<\/div>\n
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But never so \u00a0many.<\/div>\n
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And the chilling part of this story is that there has never \u00a0been another burst of \u00a0frog life in the past fifty years.I know. We \u00a0look each \u00a0year at our frogs.<\/div>\n
This year\u2026this day\u2026June \u00a010, 2018\u2026I \u00a0have yet to see one single frog on the verge or in the water. \u00a0And the pond is larger than it has ever been. \u00a0A Glorious wetland<\/div>\n
with no frogs.<\/div>\n
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In 1962, Rachel Carson predicted this was happening in her famous book Silent Spring. \u00a0I read it back in 1962 and hoped \u00a0and prayed that she was \u00a0wrong.<\/div>\n
Rachel said that the reason for the great dying of living creatures was caused by us\u2026by the rampant post 1945 use of DDT.* (*Dichlorodiphenyltrichioroethane)<\/div>\n
Invented in 1873 but put in widespread \u00a0use as an \u00a0insecticide in 1939 especially effective in controlling Malaria \u00a0bearing mosquitoes \u00a0Swiss chemist Paul Muller received the Nobel prize<\/div>\n
for discovering that this human made chemical (i.e. not a natural chemical) was a great contact poison for insects. \u00a0After WW 2, DDT became a \u00a0household<\/div>\n
pesticide that could be purchased with ease. \u00a0 While DDT killed mosquitos effectively it also worked \u00a0up the food chain killing many creatures including<\/div>\n
vast numbers of birds as Rachel Carson pointed out. \u00a0In 1972 under the Stockholm Convention, DDT was \u00a0banned. \u00a0By that time the chemical had \u00a0pushed the peregrine \u00a0falcon near to extinction and \u00a0devastated \u00a0the blad eagles.<\/div>\n
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DDT was a killer \u00a0let loose to disrupt the global food chain. \u00a0Perhaps contributing to what some scientists call the SIXTH EXTINCTION.<\/div>\n
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There was no DDT in our ponds. \u00a0No farm fields drained \u00a0chemicals \u00a0into the ponds which ar just \u00a0below the height of land draining on one side<\/div>\n
to the Grand River and \u00a0on the others side \u00a0to the \u00a0Credit \u00a0River. \u00a0 Our ponds are the source waters of \u00a0two great rivers. No \u00a0poisons. \u00a0So it is hard to explain why our wetlands are so devoid of life today.<\/div>\n
Even \u00a0harder to explain was that incredible burst of \u00a0the frog population in 1970 followed by a slow but continuous decline to the present day<\/div>\n
where No \u00a0Frogs Now Sing.<\/div>\n
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Trees that are about to die often have a \u00a0final burst of seeds as \u00a0if \u00a0trying to achieve some form of immortality.<\/div>\n
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Perhaps these \u00a0frogs were doing the same thing. \u00a0It was very unsettling at that moment back \u00a0in the 1970\u2019s. \u00a0That pack of \u00a0a hundred, perhaps more,<\/div>\n
just sat there looking right into my eyes. \u00a0 And were never seen again.<\/div>\n
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Today, June 10, 2018, I walked around two of our ponds\u20267 acres of water\u2026just to confirm they were dead. \u00a0 Wishing I \u00a0was wrong.<\/div>\n
But no frog \u00a0sang\u2026no leech wriggled\u2026no snake \u00a0slithered\u2026no redwing blackbird \u00a0attacked. \u00a0 All were gone.<\/div>\n
Depressing.<\/div>\n
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\u201cCrash\u201d, our female wood duck that we rescued twice from our farm house this spring where she had taken an exploration trip down the<\/div>\n
chimney and spent a couple of \u00a0days \u00a0smashing dishes in the house before being returned to the pond where her mate waited<\/div>\n
resplendent in his \u00a0best mating colours.<\/div>\n
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I was thinking about her when Marjorie called\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cAlan, put the dog \u00a0in the truck, we\u2019re \u00a0heading \u00a0home.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAll Set.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLook! \u00a0LOOK!\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWHERE?<\/div>\n
\u201cOver there between \u00a0the ponds. \u00a0Movement\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI see her now\u2026and a \u00a0dozen little ones all waddling in \u00a0straight line like Madelaine school girls in uniform.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho is she?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201c\u201dSmall duck\u2026It’s \u00a0CRASH \u00a0our \u00a0wood duck\u2026looks like her\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTwelve ducklings at least\u2026tiny .. just hatched. a few days \u00a0ago\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI walked \u00a0right by them just a \u00a0few minutes ago\u2026saw \u00a0nothing.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLook! There they are again\u2026all \u00a0in line heading down the tractor trail. \u00a0Hustling. \u00a0Going somewhere.\u201d<\/div>\n
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I wondered \u00a0if \u00a0maybe, \u00a0just maybe, \u00a0there were \u00a0a \u00a0few frogs bobbing under the fallen cattails\u2026peeping<\/div>\n
from \u00a0beneath those lilly pads\u2026HOPE \u00a0SPRINGS ETERNAL.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 10,2018<\/div>\n
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Creatures \u00a0common to our ponds \u00a0but not so \u00a0common this year. \u00a0 No frogs singing. \u00a0Extinctions \u00a0do \u00a0not come \u00a0suddenly \u2026 they take time, often thousands of<\/h2>\n
years in geologic time. \u00a0Human \u00a0beings\u2026you and me\u2026seem to be accelerating this \u00a0Sixth extinction if it is \u00a0real. \u00a0 Let\u2019s \u00a0hope and \u00a0pray we are not the cause of our own demise.<\/div>\n

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**Note:\u00a0In the last few decades, habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive organisms, pollution, toxification, and more recently climate disruption, as well as the interactions among these factors, have led to the catastrophic declines in both the numbers and sizes of populations of both common and rare vertebrate species (<\/span>24<\/a>\u21d3<\/a>\u21d3<\/a>\u21d3<\/a>\u2013<\/span>28<\/a>). For example, several species of mammals that were relatively safe one or two decades ago are now endangered. In 2016, there were only 7,000 cheetahs in existence (<\/span>29<\/a>) and less than 5,000 Borneo and Sumatran orangutans (<\/span>Pongo pygmaeus<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>P. abelli<\/em>, respectively) (<\/span>28<\/a>). Populations of African lion (<\/span>Panthera leo<\/em>) dropped 43% since 1993 (<\/span>30<\/a>), pangolin (<\/span>Manis<\/em>spp.) populations have been decimated (<\/span>31<\/a>), and populations of giraffes dropped from around 115,000 individuals thought to be conspecific in 1985, to around 97,000 representing what is now recognized to be four species (<\/span>Giraffa giraffa<\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>G<\/em>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>tippelskirchi<\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>G. reticulata<\/em>, and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>G. camelopardalis<\/em>) in 2015 (<\/span>32<\/a>).<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Gerardo Ceballos<\/span>,\u00a0Paul R. Ehrlich<\/span>, and\u00a0Rodolfo Dirzo<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
PNAS\u00a0<\/span>July 25, 2017.\u00a0<\/span>114\u00a0<\/span>(30)\u00a0<\/span>E6089-E6096;\u00a0<\/span>published ahead of print July 10, 2017.\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.1704949114<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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    Contributed by Paul R. Ehrlich, May 23, 2017 (sent for review March 28, 2017; reviewed by Thomas E. Lovejoy and Peter H. Raven)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    THERE HAVE \u00a0BEEN FIVE MASS EXTINCTIONS OF LIVING CREATURES ON \u00a0EARTH \u2026MANY SCIENTISTS THINK WE ARE NOW IN THE MIDST OF THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}