De extinction argument essay outline

Apart from the common worries about global warming, industrial pollution, and rain forests being cut down, there is also the huge problem of the extinction of species; and while humanity can, hopefully, somehow stop the processes it is directly causing, it is unclear whether this extinction can be prevented or at least slowed down.

During the past 500 million years, there already were five mass extinctions (with the largest of them being the Permian-Triassic and the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions, 245 and 65 million years ago respectively), causing from 14% to 84% of the genera or families to completely disappear from the fossil record.

Although the words “mass extinction” definitely sounds alarming, it is not something uncommon for our planet. At the moment, we are witnessing the sixth mass extinction of species.

Scientists believe that due to technological progress, the chances of such de-extinction, so to say, are high, so the question is not “if,” but rather “when” this will be done. Both of these species were functionally unique species strongly affecting their environments, so their vanishing had changed the ecosystems they lived in as well.