Earth 'on brink of mass extinction event'

Deforestation and climate change drive extinction rates to 1,000 times their normal level

The view of Earth in handout image provided by NASA
(Image credit: NASA via Getty Images)

Earth is on the brink of a "mass extinction event" which could be equivalent in scale to the one that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, a landmark study by an international group of scientists has concluded.

Researchers warned that deforestation, climate change, and overfishing have driven extinction rates to 1,000 times their normal level, Reuters reports.

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