Ben Scheres

that are in danger of becoming extinct or have already done so. It’s remarkable as the combined effort of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them amateurs, to compile data on the status of their favorite taxa. For amphibians, we know that there were 1437 species described by taxonomists before 1900. Of these, 18 are either extinct or presumed extinct. After 1900, taxonomists described 4967 species, for which 121 are extinct or presumed so. Following these newer discoveries from the time of their description allows an estimate of 587 extinctions per million species, per year. This contrasts to a background rate of about one extinction per ten million species, per year. These numbers attest to two other facts: first, the rate of species description is still increasing — new species (Figure 1) are being found in places that were until recently inaccessible. Second, newly described species have very high rates of extinction and threat. They are rare — which is why we have only just found them — and in places where there is extensive habitat loss. Second, like too many others — such as diCaprio’s The 11th Hour or Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction — Kolbert details the problems, but none of the solutions. One wonders, were she to write about modern medicine, would she portray all physicians as telling us we are all going to die — which is true — but fail to notice that their profession greatly reduces mortality and disease? Tens of thousands of conservation professionals worldwide save species on the brink and are measurably reducing extinction rates. The fraction of the Earth’s surface now protected has increased steadily, while Brazil has massively reduced deforestation in the Amazon. From these and so many other stories, we surely conclude that the sixth extinction is not yet written. It’s a nightmare from which we can still escape.