Are humans invincible to extinction?

1 Answer
Apr 20, 2016

No, all of our earlier human lineages have gone extinct in the last 6 million years. Global warming could force our own homo sapiens into extinction.

Explanation:

Humans have evolved over the past 6 million years and over this time there were many species of early ancestors that have gone extinct for reasons we don't clearly understand. You can see this from the pic below.

http://theodysseyonline.com/pitt/bones-bring-question-to-human-evolution-timeline/256351 image source here

There have been at least 5 major extinction events in the geological past that have killed off more than a million species, so it happens to all species. Human activities are setting off a 6th extinction event through global warming, habitat destruction, overfishing/overhunting, and poor agricultural practices. If all of the world's ecosystems were to collapse from this 6th extinction, its not clear if humans would survive or not. Some scientists think that we may be able to apply technology fixes to save our species, but others are not so sure.