March 24, 2025, 7:52 a.m.
Welcome to the Holocene Extinction, Hope You Survive Awhile
The Conspiracy Report
So many scientists believe we are currently in a mass extinction event, they've already named it.
You may not realize it, but you're living in the Holocene Extinction, which began at the end of the last Ice Age.
Animals go extinct all the time – it's normal.
But a mass extinction event is something much different. At least 75% of all species on Earth must die off to qualify. Seems impossible.
There are, conservatively, 9 million species of animals and plants on the planet today. That means mainstream science is convinced we're on track to lose 6,750,000 species in the next few centuries.
Why are they so convinced? Because extinction rates are abnormally high. Scientists consider losing five species a year to extinction within a normal range.
Human activity is squeezing resources, pushing extinction rates to levels 100 times higher or more, with dozens of species a day disappearing in some periods.
Still, we're far from hitting that 75% level. If we ever did, we'd face serious danger, to say the least. That level of loss in our ecosystem would cause widespread famine, economic collapse, and a health crisis there's no coming back from.
Humans don't rely on any one species to survive. But if 75% died off, we'd find ourselves in a world infested with disease and pests and devoid of food sources, putting us at imminent risk.
In her Pulitzer Price-winning 2014 book The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert sums it up nicely: "If extinction is a morbid topic, mass extinction is, well, massively so."
Could it really happen?
Well, of course it already has – there's a reason Kolbert's book is called the Sixth Extinction. It's famously happened five times already. The first was 400 million years ago and primarily affected marine life, because that's where most of the animals were at the time.
Global cooling caused an ice age and a drop in sea levels, and marine life had no water to live in (to oversimplify things). The other mass extinction events were triggered by volcanic activity and global warming, or asteroid impacts, or both.
The last one happened an inconceivably long time ago – 66 million years – when an asteroid impact caused massive environmental change once again. In that case, debris from volcanic ash put the world in darkness, stopping photosynthesis.
Most life on Earth didn’t survive it, including the dinosaurs roaming around at the time.
That fifth event was so long ago, one might think the days of mass extinctions are over. Humans are advanced now. If an asteroid was heading our way, we'd not only know about it well ahead of time, we'd have the means to divert it.
In fact, since humans made their first appearance on Earth, there have been no mass extinction events at all. But more and more, there are disturbing signs we're well on our way to number six. Or, as mainstream science claims, already deep in it.
One warning came in a 2019 study in the journal Science, which reported we lost three billion birds in North America in the past 50 years. If one species of bird goes extinct, that's no global crisis.
Hard to get too worked up over the loss of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, or the Mountain Plover (both of which are in danger of disappearing forever). But if we lose every bird? Well, now it's a crisis.
Turns out, birds are essential to human survival. Without them, insect populations explode, spreading disease and destroying crops. Birds also eat rodents, which would see their populations surge. Birds also disperse seeds and pollinate plants.
Our natural resources and food sources would face a slow death, leaving humans in crisis.
And last month, the 2025 State of the Birds report was released, with more bad news. Those staggering losses of birds are continuing. The State of Birds study is published by a coalition of science and conservation organizations. It tries to remain optimistic that American bird populations can be saved.
But the report identifies 229 species requiring urgent action or they face extinction. These are "tipping point species", birds that have lost more than half their population in the last 50 years.
In one dramatic example, rising seas in Alaska flooded seabird colonies in low-lying islands and, combined with marine heatwaves, starved four million Common Murres. They're a cool looking bird, could be mistaken for a penguin. It's the largest documented wildlife mortality event in the modern era.
According to Jeff Walters, from the American Ornithological Society, "we need to remember that if conditions are not healthy for birds, they're unlikely to be healthy for us."
The expression "canary in a coal mine" originates from a time in the 19th century when a live canary was placed in a coal mine to test for toxic gases. If the canary died, it meant the air was unfit for humans.
Canaries are not native to North America. Of the groups studied in the 2025 State of Birds report, they're probably most similar to Grassland Birds. Since 1970, Grassland Birds have lost 43% of their population, more than any other group studied.
It's one thing to find a single dead canary and see it as a sign of danger. When all the canaries are dead, it might be time to find a new planet.
Sources
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250313130951.htm