PVK talk titled ‘The Sixth Extinction’ on A I R, Trivandrum broadcast on 2/Dec/2021
‘The Sixth Extinction’
Social scientists, people who study all kinds of social phenomena using data, logic and a sense of neutrality come up with interesting insights now and then.
For instance, we are told that ordinary conversations and news cycles tend to be dominated by bad news. A million good things may happen but a rare accident or murder gets all the attention. If a billion people go to bed after ordinary, reasonably happy days, that will not make the news. Indian Rail, one of the most extensive and efficient transport systems in the world, drops over 22 million passengers safely at their destinations every day. Every single day, across the globe, over 40,000 commercial flights take off and land. There are no headlines about these things. When an accident occurs, it dominates the news.
Most news is about political or cultural issues. These are rarely existential matters, that is, matters of life or death.
There are, actually, two existential questions facing mankind. One is climate change and the other is the sixth extinction. These are existential because they threaten the very existence of mankind. They are not receiving the attention they should.
Climate change does attract a little attention here in Kerala. The rainfall and floods get noticed. Extreme weather events are now present everywhere on Earth. Fires, floods and droughts are throwing life out of gear. No part of the world is exempt.
What is causing all of this? The short answer is: the greenhouse effect. Man made emissions have, particularly in the last 250 years, upset the natural balance of gasses in our atmosphere. As a result the atmosphere traps more heat now that we get from the sun than before. This heating churns the atmosphere, makes the oceans more volatile and transforms the land. Extreme weather becomes the norm.
There is another existential threat facing us – the sixth extinction.
What is it and why is it so important?
Scientists believe that there are about eight million species on earth. Species, not specimens. Species go extinct now and then. When this is a global event and when more than 75 % of all known species die in a short time, it is called a mass extinction.
In the history of life on Earth there have been five mass extinctions. Now a sixth one is under way. This one is entirely caused by man, unlike the previous five which were all due to natural reasons.
Species go extinct naturally. This is at a very slow rate. Currently, species are disappearing at between a hundred and a thousand times the normal rate. If this is not catastrophic, one does not know what is.
Why is this happening? All the credit for it goes to Homo sapiens. We kill flora and fauna through a variety of very effective ways.
One is hunting, once for food, now often for pleasure. Most of the big animals, or megafauna, of the world disappeared soon after man had migrated to their habitats. This was the beginning of the sixth extinction. Lion and tigers and whales may soon join that list.
Habitat destruction is a key factor in today’s mass extinction. As habitats are fragmented they become too small to sustain a viable population of many fauna and flora.
An enormous number of species compete and collaborate with each other in nature. A balance is struck. A rich and biodiverse world is the result.
Ecosystems were once geographically isolated. The continents separated millennia ago and in all land masses, from small islands to continents, evolution and speciation proceeded gradually. Innumerable species competed and collaborated to ensure the survival of all. The introduction of alien species changed that. Invasive, alien species, introduced most often by European colonisers, wrecked havoc globally. For example: a number of flightless birds around the world, particularly in islands, were wiped out when Europeans introduced dogs and cats and rats. This accelerated the sixth extinction.
Intensive, industrialized agriculture kills biodiversity because it is accompanied by the widespread use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This has led to extensive degradation of soils and consequent biodiversity loss. Man’s activities have also had a deadly impact on the oceans and all marine creatures, from coral reefs to whales, are fast joining the list of extinct or endangered species.
Even a small increase in heat can wipe out species, particularly small ones. A great number of frogs have been wiped out in the last few decades, because frogs are very sensitive to changes of temperature and other environmental conditions. What we do not notice is the devastating effect the changes described above have on microscopic creatures. The insect and the microbial world are particularly vulnerable. Bees have declined dramatically. We depend on them for pollination. Nobody was hunting bees but the widespread use of insecticides all over the world is responsible for only about 30% or their population now being alive.
There is one overwhelming reason why both climate change and the sixth extinction are proceeding unimpeded – human beings and their thirst for what is defined as development. The natural world is like a delicate and beautiful fabric woven out of millions of fragile threads. As more and more strands of this fabric are destroyed the fabric crumbles till it becomes unviable. Parts no longer support each other; everything unravels. It is no longer a fabric, just pieces of rag.
How are we coping with this global meltdown? Badly, one must say. Our actions, in spite of climate summits and legislations here and there, are too little and too late.
Why is this? At an intellectual level, many of us are aware of the problems. But we simply refuse to change our behaviour. We are addicted to consumption and comfort and pleasure and mindlessly continue with our dangerous and unsustainable behaviour.
Kerala, lucky to have an abundance of greenery and other biological wealth, has not been immune to this tendency. Consider this: nearly a quarter of the flora mentioned in Hortus Malabaricus is extinct or critically endangered. Many others are vulnerable or endangered.
There is an elephant in this room. That is, a giant issue no one will talk about. That is our population problem. I have mentioned it, but I will not talk about it either.
What should we be doing to avert the disaster that is the sixth extinction?
First, understand the problem. We need good research that will document our biological wealth and identify the species that require attention. Luckily, we have good biologists and scientists in our midst. They need support. When they make recommendations we should study them and then act on them, not pass them, that is, the recommendations, on to termites to chew over.
There needs to be a campaign to educate the public about the sixth extinction. Extinction is not an abstract problem that exists in an imaginary realm but a real world problem that has to be addressed urgently. By governments and corporate giants and by the general public. But let us not put these on every syllabus. Then we will turn them to bullet points and forget them the minute the exams are over.
Let us adopt a two pronged strategy. One, let us try to recover all those species that are on the verge of extinction. One way of doing this would be to ensure that in a good number of places, attempts are made to plant and nurture endangered trees and plants and bring back the fauna that might have been dependent on them. The second would be to preserve what little is left of the unmolested natural world so more species do not slide towards extinction. This does not mean fencing off large areas of forests or other ecosystems but of managing them with intelligence and compassion, with knowledge and concern. We have the knowledge. What we lack is the will.
Remember the Vechoor cow? This native species had dwindled to a few dozen before concerted efforts brought it back from the brink. They are still endangered but steps are being taken to preserve them.
Kerala has a huge number of plants and trees and insects and fish and animals which are in a similar situation. With a collective effort we might be able to save all or most of them.
But only if our developmental model is changed. Kerala is biologically rich but ecologically fragile. Let us recognise this in our actions and shift to a sustainable way of ensuring prosperity for everyone. We may pave all of Kerala with marble and gold, but if we fritter away our biological wealth, Kerala will not just be a poorer place, it will not be Kerala.
To sum up, the sixth extinction and the consequent loss of biodiversity is an existential problem, facing those of us in Kerala and all of mankind. It is caused by global warming, hunting, fragmentation of ecosystems, industrialised agriculture, deforestation, pollution, the introduction of invasive and alien species, overpopulation and other factors. If we do not halt climate change and the sixth extinction, our future is in doubt. The Earth will go on, with or without us.
© P. Vijaya Kumar Originally broadcast on 2/Dec/2021
Posted on 02/June/2026
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