Scientist Claim That Humans Are Almost Certainly Going 'Extinct'

Scientists believe our days on Earth are numbered.

Paleontologist and Nature editor Henry Gee argued in a new opinion piece for Scientific American argues that by the end of this century, the global population could start the inevitable decline and Gee is not mincing his words when he uses the term 'extinction.'

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"I suspect that the human population is set not just for shrinkage but collapse — and soon," he wrote.

Gee has pointed out various reasons for the extinction and he believes the major ones are the lack of genetic variation, falling birth rates, pollution, and stress caused by living in overcrowded cities as a recipe for disaster.

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"The most insidious threat to humankind is something called 'extinction debt,'" Gee explained. "There comes a time in the progress of any species, even ones that seem to be thriving, when extinction will be inevitable, no matter what they might do to avert it."

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"The species most at risk are those that dominate particular habitat patches at the expense of others, who tend to migrate elsewhere, and are therefore spread more thinly," Gee posited. "Humans occupy more or less the whole planet, and with our sequestration of a large wedge of the productivity of this planetwide habitat patch, we are dominant within it."

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In other words, our actions will eventually catch up with us. That means humanity might "already be a dead species walking," Gee argued.

Gee says that the human population is most likely to collapse and not just shrink.

"The signs are already there for those willing to see them," Gee wrote. "The real question is 'How fast?'"

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