--- title: Sixth Extinction: Scientists Warn in New Paper description: The paper used conservative premises and still arrived what scientists said was a concerning conclusion canonical: https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-20T20:06:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:16.170Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway og:description: The paper used conservative premises and still arrived what scientists said was a concerning conclusion og:url: https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4034b6a0663058d4/6988557d0b72e391d06e4931/extinction.jpg?branch=production&width=1006&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1006 og:image:height: 566 og:image:alt: extinction og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway twitter:description: The paper used conservative premises and still arrived what scientists said was a concerning conclusion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4034b6a0663058d4/6988557d0b72e391d06e4931/extinction.jpg?branch=production&width=1006&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=b17d41d2-de4a-489c-8231-e8e007294147&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How To Survive An Avalanche [Watch (HLS stream): How To Survive An Avalanche](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2ByLa3N0.m3u8) (3:33)  _Published 2014-02-12. How To Survive An Avalanche_  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jun 20, 2015 8:06 PM UTC  Science Advances  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jun 20, 2015 8:06 PM UTC A new paper [warns ](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253)that a major extinction event, one that would be the sixth in our planet’s history, may be underway. The authors of the paper, [published in ](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253)[_Science Advances,_](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253) sought to determine whether recent loss in biodiversity has been caused by human activity; the conclusion they reach is that “a sixth mass extinction is already under way.” The scientists’ abstract concludes: --- > “” --- As Kaleigh Rogers points out [at _Vice_](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we-are-100-for-sure-in-the-middle-of-a-major-extinction-event?utm%5Fsource=source=vicetwitterus), this paper hardly breaks ground in its premise; the idea that Earth is undergoing the sixth extinction has been written about by scientists before. What differs, here, are the criteria; the scientists estimated very conservatively when it came to how many species have recently gone extinct, and still found that conservative estimate showing the likelihood of an environmental cataclysm. ### See The Best Biology Photos Of The Year  Two Bisons on the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Lukas Gawenda  A spider at sunset in Predel, Bulgaria. Krasimir Matarov  Parasitoid wasps building clay pots in Borneo, Brunei. Thomas Endlein  Siblings watering newly planted seedlings in Rizal, The Philippines. Ysabel M Victoriano  A leopard in its natural habitat in Karantaka, India. Nagarjun Ram  A farmer protects his family and animals from mosquitos in Gujarat, India. Dimple Pancholi  A tarsier in its natural habitat in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Wolfgang Weinhardt  A plant takes advantage of the available shelter in a dilapidated house in Kolmanskop, Namibia. Kelsey Green  A female blackbird holding a dried mealworm in her mouth in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Billy Clapham  A chick embryo in a hardened eggshell is sustained until full development in Rizal, The Philippines. Robert Cabagnot  An adult female Italian crested newt stationed below the fresh water surface in Piedmont, Italy. Matteo Riccardo Di Nicola  A sea turtle eating a jellyfish in The Maldives. Boris Barath ## Transcript >> A back country ski outing in Switzerland that is about to turn into a horrifying experience. Christopher Carlson, who was wearing a helmet cam, came very close to documenting his own death. It's an avalanche. He is buried about five feet under the snow, unable to move. Carlson is hoping the skiers he was with find him before he suffocates. And they do. He is a very lucky man. On the average, in the U. S ., 28 people die each year from avalanches, often with hundreds of tons of snow plummeting down the mountain. I ski at Colorado's Copper Mountain with one of the top avalanche experts in the United States. >> How are the conditions? >> Good for skiing. Ethan Green is the director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. His State Agency's responsibility in part, to forecast the probability of avalanches. >> This is Mayflower Gulch. >> And he takes me away from the resort and into the back country where most avalanches occur, to learn about the three essentials for back country skiers. >> Beacon, probe and shovel. >> Beacon, probe, shovel. >> That's right. >> Those are the three things you have to have with you. >> That's right. >> The beacon. >> We all put on one of these and turn them on so they are transmitting. They are sending out a signal, and then later in the day, if you get buried in an avalanche I will be able to set mine to receive, pick up your signal and locate you. >> The probe and the shovel. >> Yeah, this is a three- meter probe pole. So what this allows me to do is once I get your general location with the beacon, I can pinpoint you with this probe and then use the shovel to dig down to the tip. >> There is also this fourth item that can keep you above the rampaging snow threatening to bury you, the air bag pack. We dug a three- foot deep hole in the snow to simulate where an avalanche victim might be trapped. Our plan, to send Ethan Green up the mountain with his beacon in receive mode to try to pick up my signal from a hole where I will wait for a rescue. Our producer, Chris [ unk ], puts the finishing touches on my snow cave and I wait in the dark underground. Okay, as I am turning on to receive. No signal right away. But quickly-- >> We got a signal. >> It tells him how close he is getting. >> 16 meters, 13 meters. >> The beacon works like a charm. >> Okay, I'm less than a meter. I have a strike. >> Wow. It was quite unsettling under there. I'm glad your beacon worked. >> Me too. >> Thanks. >> Yes. >> Of course, I was always safe in my controlled environment. In real life a victim sometimes doesn't even have a chance in a huge avalanche. >> It's so dense that you're not going to be able to dig yourself out. Sometimes you can't even expand your lungs to breath. >> But if you are alive after the snow stops moving, having the right equipment can mean the difference between life and death, just like it did for Christopher Carlson. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/"},"headline":"Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway","datePublished":"2015-06-20T20:06:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:16.170Z","description":"The paper used conservative premises and still arrived what scientists said was a concerning conclusion","url":"https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/","keywords":["Environment","Science topic","nature"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4034b6a0663058d4/6988557d0b72e391d06e4931/extinction.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4034b6a0663058d4/6988557d0b72e391d06e4931/extinction.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"extinction","caption":"extinction","creditText":"Science Advances","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/","name":"Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How To Survive An Avalanche","description":"How To Survive An Avalanche","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/2ByLa3N0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-02-12T18:27:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2ByLa3N0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/","duration":"PT3M33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```