![]() It means more pesticides, detergents, antibiotics, glues, lubricants, preservatives, and plastics, many of which contain compounds that mimic mammalian hormones. More people also means the production of more computers and more mobile phones, along with more mining operations for the rare earths needed to make them. Meanwhile, more of Canada needs to be destroyed to extract low-grade petroleum from oil sands and more of the United States needs to be fracked. More people means greater demand for fossil fuels, which means more greenhouse gases flowing into the atmosphere, perhaps the single greatest extinction threat of all. More people means more wild land must be put under the plow or converted to urban infrastructure to support sprawling cities like Manila, Chengdu, New Delhi, and San Jose. The more people there are, the more of Earth’s productive resources must be mobilized to support them. ![]() We are transporting invasive organisms around the globe and overharvesting commercially or nutritionally valuable plants and animals. Our pollution is disrupting the climate and poisoning the land, water, and air. We are destroying habitats to make way for farms, pastures, roads, and cities. The cause of this great acceleration in the loss of the planet’s biodiversity is clear: rapidly expanding human activity, driven by worsening overpopulation and increasing per capita consumption. The species that are so rapidly disappearing provide human beings with indispensable ecosystem services: regulating the climate, maintaining soil fertility, pollinating crops and defending them from pests, filtering fresh water, and supplying food. This is a tragedy, even for those who may not care about the loss of wildlife. We are in the process of killing off our only known companions in the universe, many of them beautiful and all of them intricate and interesting.
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