The extinction rate accelerated during the last years and is now 1000 times greater than in pre-human times. Robert May. President Royal Society. We estimate that between 1 and 10% of species are eliminated every 10 years – that is 27,000 every year. Edward O. Wilson. The diversity of life. Harvard University. It is not unrealistic to foresee that we will have exterminated half of all living species by the middle of the 21st century. Michael Novacek . American Museum of Natural History. New York. UNEP estimates that 25% of mammifers and 12% of birds are on the verge of extinction. Scientific American 2001
• source: The Sixth Extinction • See also XlnkS62F