http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_051201026.html

'Mass Extinction' Theory: Life On Earth Threatened
Biologists Say Life Already Being Wiped Out At High Rate

While global warming continues to gain widespread public awareness, a potentially more devastating environmental threat is only beginning to get noticed.

The threat is mass extinction, and scientists are taking it very seriously.

There is widespread belief among scientists that current species of life are becoming extinct at a rate more than 1,000 times higher than normal.

"We are at the precipice of the end of the world," said Chera Van Burg of Species Alliance.

An asteroid caused the last mass extinction when it wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Some believe that if a meteor were to strike the Earth again today, the effect on life would be little different that what may already be underway.

"According to a consensus of the world's biologists, a mass extinction is unfolding or about to unfold on planet Earth," said David Ulansey of Massextinction.net...............

.........."If we continue at the present rate, virtually all the species of fish in the ocean will be extinct in the next 50 years," said former Vice President Al Gore in a recent visit to Silicon Valley........

..........Biologists believe the six major causes of the present mass extinction are habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, human overpopulation, human overconsumption, and climate change.

The good news is that there is still time to turn it around. The bad news -- some believe -- time is short, perhaps only five to 10 years to make significant changes in how we live our lives.........