
Earth faces sixth mass extinction - fmihaila
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2017/07/10/earth-faces-sixth-mass-extinction/465655001/
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rrggrr
I'm confused. There are about 40,000 known species of vertebrate. There were
18,000 NEW species of life in general discovered in 2016 alone
([http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-new-
spec...](http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-new-species-
top-10-20170522-htmlstory.html)). It's estimated there are more than 8 million
species of plant, animal and insect life on the earth. Population decline
doesn't equal extinction.

So how, pray tell, do we find ourselves in a mass extinction event when less
than half of vertebrate species are in decline, less than 1% of species in
general are in decline, and when we're still discovering new species and
adaptations by existing species every year?

