(CNN) – There may soon be fewer organisms on the Earth.
A new report says our planet is entering its sixth mass-extinction event.
That means up to 75 percent of all species could vanish within the next few hundred years.
The findings are published in this week’s proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the data, a third of mammal, bird, amphibian and reptile species are at an “extremely high degree of population decay.”
Researchers say we have about 20 years to try to prevent these mass extinctions.
The “mass annihilation” the authors describe could lead to a deterioration of the balance of nature, and cause an ecosystem collapse that will threaten civilization, and perhaps humanity itself.
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