5 CAUSES OF EXTINCTION

(i) Loss/degradation of Habitat:

A habitat is place where living beings find food, cloth and shelter and a safe place to reproduce and bring
up their offspring. Thus, loss of habitat is the greatest threat to the world.

(ii) Overexploitation of Resources:

A number of species like tigers, giant pandas etc. are on the verge of extinction because of
overexploitation of resources.

(iii) Pollution:

Pollution is responsible for global climatic changes and for the extinction of most of the species.

(iv) Extinction of weaker species due to aggressive non-native species:

It is responsible for extinction of almost 50% of species on islands all over the world since 1800 AD.

(v) Poaching of wildlife:

Poaching is the illegal killing of wildlife for sale in the internation trade market. The animals are killed
due to following reasons.

Some wildlife species are killed for consumption (eating);

Elephants are killed to obtain their teeth for financial gains;

Tigers/lions are killed to extract their skin to be sold for decoration of the drawing rooms of some
peoples.

The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. This
process makes Earth much warmer than it would be without an atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is one
of the things that makes Earth a comfortable place to live.

Global warming is a long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate system, an aspect
of climate change shown by temperature measurements and by multiple effects of the warming.[2][3] The
term commonly refers to the mainly human-caused observed increase in global surface temperatures and
its projected continuation,[4] though there were also much earlier periods of global warming.

Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form
of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the
atmosphere in wet or dry forms. This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.

Eutrophication (from Greek eutrophos, "well-nourished"), or hypertrophication, is when a body of water

becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae. This
process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body.