Should humans add themselves to the endangered species list? The planet Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. Modern humans have only existed on this planet for 200,000 years, or .004% of the Earth’s lifetime. In this short period, humans have made a greater impact on the environment than any other species. Humans not only consume most of Earth’s resources, but destroy them as well. Without these resources, humans would not survive. Human survival is also threatened by their tendency to destroy each other. Humans have colonized every corner of the planet and are very territorial. Conflicts are started for numerous reasons including power, wealth, politics and resources. In early human history, conflicts were between neighboring tribes. In the modern world, these “tribes” consist of large human populations – China being the largest with just over 1.3 billion people (World Bank, 2008). Due to such large groups of people, larger, more destructive weapons were developed by humans for conflicts. These weapons, aptly named “weapons of mass destruction;” include chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. Also included are any weapons which may be developed in the future with similar destructive capacity (Prawitz & Leonard, 1999).Lastly, the Earth is becoming increasingly populated by humans at an exponential, or hyperexponential rate (Varfolomeyev & Gurevich, 2001). This overpopulation is yet another threat to the survival of humans.
Ecocide
Ecocide, or the killing of the environment, is caused by human activities (Joksimovich, 2000). One of the largest causes of ecocide is the existence of extractive economies in industrialized nations. Extractive economies are those that deplete non-renewable resources and use renewable resources beyond their capacity (Coates, 2005). Some examples of this form of ecocide are the exhaustion of fisheries