Humans spur worst extinctions since dinosaurs

HUMANS are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a UN report has said.

Habitats ranging from coral reefs to tropical rainforests face mounting threats, the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity said in the report, issued at the start of a UN meeting in Curitiba, Brazil.

“In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth and the greatest since the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago,” said the Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 report.