After an evil enemy destroys Spock’s home planet in the new Star Trek (Origins) movie release, he is only one of a handful of people rescued and he quickly realizes that extinction of the Vulcan race is a real probability.
As Spock stood on the transporter, with his father and three elders, it gave the audience a profound visual of what it would be like to witness the last beings of a functionally extinct species.
Mass extinctions happened at a relatively low rate until approximately 100,000 years ago, when human presence began to advance and populate most of the globe.
Reportedly, many biologists believe that we are at this moment at the beginning of a tremendously accelerated anthropogenic mass extinction. E.O. Wilson of Harvard, in The Future of Life (2002), estimates that at current rates of human disruption of the biosphere, one-half of all species of life will be extinct by 2100. In 1998 the American Museum of Natural History conducted a 
poll of biologists that revealed that the vast majority of biologists agree that we are in the midst of an anthropogenic mass extinction. Numerous scientific studies since then—such as a 2004 report from Nature,[4] and those by the 10,000 scientists who contribute to the IUCN's annual Red List of threatened species—have only strengthened this consensus.
On April 30, 2009, WildEarth Guardians released a report which listed the top 40 threatened species. Many have not been seen for years, while languishing on the list for more than a decade, while waiting for Endangered Species Act protection.
According to Nicole Rosmarino, Ph.d, of WildEarth Guardians, the Langford’s tree snail was last seen in 1992, but has sat on the candidate list, awaiting protection, since 1994. The Warton’s cave spider was last seen in 2001 and has also been on the candidate list since 1994. There are 323 species on the waiting list- and thousands are in trouble, but are not even in the quere for protection.
The white lemuroid possum, only found in the mountain forests of northern Queensland, has been named as the first known mammal species to be driven extinct by man-made global warming. The White Possum has not been seen in over three years. These possums cannot survive extended temperatures over 30 °C, which occurred in 2005. A final expedition to uncover any surviving White Possums is scheduled for 2009.
Reasons for species extinction are complex, but habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, lack of genetic viability, deforestation, and climate change, are factors considered by experts. They are all attributed to human activities.
Star Trek (Origins) is just a movie, but it illustrates the dramatic affect that one life form can have on another. In that moment, observing Spock and four others, who are feared to be the last of their kind standing alone; one could imagine what it might be like to witness the last Ivory Billed woodpecker, black-footed ferret, monarch butterfly, or polar bear.
Extinction is forever. And it is up to mankind to recognize that every plant, bird, reptile, insect, and animal is an important part of Earth’s fragile ecosystem and demand responsible stewardship by our governments.
Copyright Jean Williams 2009 permission to reprint contact creatinggreenpiece@juno.com
Comments
Excellent report on the responsibility of all humans to take care of our planet, our home! And very clever to hang it on an immensely (and deservedly so) popular series like "Star Trek." Naturally, the movie is on our must-seelist--once it reaches our venue: the home screen!
Good comment but a little off. Spock estimates there are 10,000 surviving vulcans (who live, like him, off-planet). However I don't think the fact that the planets "6 billion Vulcans" are lost is any coincidence: it's Earth's current population. The consequence of planetary failure is given a sobering look in the latest Star Trek film, and gives cause for reflection about the health of our own spaceship Earth.
You said, "...many biologists believe that we are at this moment at the beginning of a tremendously accelerated anthropogenic mass extinction."
That humans are causing massive extinctions of species is not in doubt but time is relative and many of us know this has been occurring for about a century and a half or more. To scientists, 150 years is the beginning but I would guess that for most people who aren't in science, beginning sounds like something that just started.
'Spock estimates there are 10,000 surviving vulcans (who live, like him, off-planet)."
I did not catch that and I didn't even go to the bathroom.
At the end of the movie, the young Spock and the old Spock mention extinction in their conversation, so it was evidently a concern to them.
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