40% of World's Species Face Extinction

One in four mammals. One in eight birds. One of every three amphibians. They are at risk of disappearing from the planet. The rate of extinction hasn't been higher since the dinosaurs stopped walking the Earth, and some scientists say we are in the midst of the first mass extinction caused by a single species. That species, of course, is us.

Of the 41,000 species monitored by the World Conservation Union, 16,000 is endangered, and the number of endangered species keeps rising, according to the London Telegraph, which got an early look at the WCU's latest "Red List" report. The earth's ecosystems suffer extinctions all the time.

Death, for species, is a part of life in the grand scheme. But the unparalleled rate of extinction being caused by humans amounts to a grand experiment: How much of the earth's life can be destroyed without affecting the basic processes necessary for human life?

After all, some organisms have learned to live in extraordinary conditions -- acids, excessive heat, extreme cold -- but humans thrive where it is temperate, where there is clean water and clean air. Those conditions are created by the network of life that surrounds us, which is why the elimination of species that sustain that network is worrying.

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