Comments by "Old Scientist" (@OldScientist) on "How losing biodiversity could be killing us" video.

  1. Super nonsense. On extinction the rate is very low: 900 known lost species for 2.1 million known species in 500 years (IUCN), so from observations there are an average of slightly less than 2 species lost every year. Out of a known species total of over 2 million. That gives an annual percentage loss of less than 0.0001%. That's background extinction. At that frequency it will take over 930,000 years to reach 80% extinction of species experienced at the K-T boundary that saw the extinction of the dinosaurs. Of course, extinction is a natural part of the evolution of life on this planet with the average lifespan of a species thought to be about 1 million years (cf 930,000). It is estimated that 99.9% of all plant and animal species that have existed have gone extinct. It should also be noted that no families or genera have become extinct in the last 500 years. In fact marine diversity at the taxonomic level of families is the highest it has ever been in the Earth's long history (see Sepkoski Curve).
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  2. @DW Planet A  "It is shown" what does that mean? You can write whatever you like but it doesn't mean it's true or accurate? How many more species above the 900 identified do you believe are extinct?Where are you getting this information? What data are you relying on?
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