Signs we’re experiencing a 6th mass extinction

The phrase “mass extinction” typically conjures images of the asteroid crash that led to the twilight of the dinosaurs.

Upon impact, that 6-mile-wide space rock caused a tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean, along with earthquakes and landslides up and down what is now the Americas. A heat pulse baked the Earth, and the Tyrannosaurus rex and its compatriots died out, along with 75% of the planet’s species.

Although it may not be obvious, another devastating mass extinction event is taking place today — the sixth of its kind in Earth’s history. The trend is hitting global fauna on multiple fronts, as hotter oceans, deforestation, and climate change drive animal populations to extinction in unprecedented numbers.

The United Nations is set to release an 1,800-page assessment of scientific literature on the state of nature on May 6, 2019. Early news of the report from AFP reveals that up to 1 million species will be threatened with extinction within decades, mostly due to human actions.

“The pace of loss is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years,” according to the report.

Read more: Insects are dying off at record rates — an ominous sign we’re in the middle of a 6th mass extinction

Similarly, a 2017 study found that animal species around the world are experiencing a “biological annihilation” and that our current “mass extinction episode has proceeded further than most assume.”

Here are 16 signs that the planet is in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, and why human activity is primarily to blame.