Are We Living Through A Sixth Mass Extinction?

While climate change, species extinctions, and increasing carbon dioxide levels might feel like media buzzwords at this point, they all remain very real threats to biodiversity across the globe, and by extension, the future of our planet. Some have even argued that these are warning signs that we are living through a sixth mass extinction. Host Eleanor Higgs discusses Earth’s previous mass extinctions with palaeontologist Professor Michael Benton from the University of Bristol, and how we can use this history as a basis to understand what is happening again right before our eyes – and what might be done to stop it.

You can listen to Are We Living Through A Sixth Mass Extinction? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Are We Living Through A Sixth Mass Extinction? is an episode from IFLScience - The Big Questions by IFLScience.

This episode is 38:07 long.

This episode was published on Jul 3, 2025.

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