On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 23:42:11 +0100, Skunky
wrote:
thing I am sure of is that nearly all the species lost and the habitat
destroyed brings us ultimately back to one cause.....HUMANS

Sorry, not even close. If you want someone or something to blame,
point to nature.

According to the 1995 United Nations Environment Programme Global
Biodiversity Assessment, over 95 percent of all species that ever
existed are now extinct. Even figures for the number of species known
to have existed vary greatly, ranging from between two million and
80million - while some scientists estimate that only about 1.6million
species have ever been recorded.

440 Million years ago, 20 - 50 % of families wiped out.

360 million years ago, 20 - 30 % of families wiped out.

250 million years ago, 50 % of families wiped out, Greatest mass
extinction ever.

213 million years ago, 20 - 35 % of families wiped out. Dinosaurs and
mammals had just recently evolved; both live through this extinction.

66 million years ago, 15 % of families wiped out. Dinosaurs
become extinct. 65 million of years after this mass extinction, early
humans evolve.

About 11,000 years ago, many species of animals went extinct across
north america. Some people try to point to human hunting as the
cause, but evidence of human hunting exists only a few of the hundreds
of species that were wiped out. A more credible explanation points to
a changing climate, long before man was having a big impact on the
climate.



Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua