On the first day of the new year, several scientists from Stanford University came to CBS's Scott Pelley's 60 Minutes to discuss the global mass extinction crisis on Earth.. And none of the scientists had good news about this, writes Futurism.

Tony Barnosky, a Stanford biologist who uses the fossil record to track changes in an ecosystem over time, said species extinction rates today are 100 times higher than those typically seen throughout Earth's history.. According to him, this means that now the planet is facing the worst extinction in the entire existence of life on it..

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He noted that the Earth itself has repeatedly recovered from such events, but the vast majority of species that live on the planet will not be able to do this.. This will affect people as well as some aspects of our civilization as we know it now..

“I and most of my colleagues believe that we have come to terms with this. That the next few decades will be the end of our civilization as we know it,” said Stanford’s Paul Ehrlich..

This prediction means that even if humanity as a species can survive a mass extinction, it will face habitat destruction, disruption of the natural food chain, soil infertility and many other negative consequences.. And this can lead to the collapse of modern human society..

“I think it would be an exaggeration to say that we are killing the planet, the planet will cope. We are killing our own way of life,” Barnosky said..

In other words, if humanity does not abruptly change the course in which it is moving, the chaos that we bring to the planet will become disastrous for ourselves.. It's a grim forecast, but it aligns with the warnings of other scientists..

It is worth noting that Erlich is a kind of symbol of the idea of \u200b\u200bmass extinction and overpopulation.. He wrote one of his first books on the dangers of excessive population growth back in 1968.. But then he was considered an alarmist due to the inconsistency of the forecasts made.. And although not all of them came true, two of them - that greenhouse gas emissions will lead to the melting of glaciers, and that humanity will displace wildlife - have become a reality..

According to the scientist, the problem lies in " He notes that this is a reality that is not showing any signs of slowing down..

" To support our way of life (yours and mine, basically) for the entire planet, you will need five more Earths.. It is not clear where they will come from, ”said Erlich..

“The resources that will be required, the systems that support our lives, of course, are the biodiversity that we are destroying.. Humanity is very busy sitting on a branch that it saws off,” he added..