ABSTRACT. Although the urgency of our present environmental crises is not in doubt, claims that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction are highly controversial. Our aims here are, first, to shed philosophical light on this scientific debate—the many conceptual and methodological challenges involved in answering this scientific question—and, second, to offer new perspectives on what the value of asking this question has been, and if that value persists. We argue that a straightforward answer to the question of whether we are experiencing a mass extinction is undermined by the challenges in defining ‘mass extinction’, uncertainties in past and present diversity assessments, and data incommensurabilities. Further, an excessive focus on the mass extinction framing can be unhelpful to conservation efforts, leading us to miss out on the many other valuable insights that Earth’s deep time can offer in guiding our future.
From the latest issue:
Are We in a Sixth Mass Extinction? The Challenges of Answering and Value of Asking
– Federica Bocchi, Alisa Bokulich, Leticia Castillo Brache, Gloria Grand-Pierre & Aja Watkins
Abstract in alt text or read it here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
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