Thanks for your question! Whatever we do, over hundreds of millions of years there will probably be a mass extinction at some point, most simply because there have been 5 mass extinctions in the last 500 million years. That said, there appears to be an unprecedented rate of species loss today, and many would argue that we are already in the sixth mass extinction (see for example Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, or this paper).

Changes in land use probably account for much modern species loss. Climate change and ocean acidification (which we’ve focused on in our work) may eventually contribute to much more. The best way to prepare for this as a society is clearly to act in ways that limit disruptions to the global environment. At the individual level, the question becomes about how to best influence the actions of societies, which is unfortunately outside of our domain of expertise.