the sixth mass extinction
We are living through the sixth mass extinction right now.
Not in some distant future. Not as a theoretical risk. It is happening this decade, this year, this day. Extinction rates are already 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural background rate that prevailed for millions of years. Species that should have taken 800 to 10,000 years to vanish under normal conditions are disappearing in a single human century.
One million species — roughly one in eight of all known forms of life — face extinction, many within the next few decades. Entire genera of vertebrates have already been erased since 1500. Amphibians, insects, birds, and mammals are being stripped from the tree of life faster than at any time since the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.
This is not a natural cycle. It is driven by us: habitat destruction on a planetary scale, climate disruption, pollution, overexploitation. Once a species is gone, it is gone forever. No technology will bring back the unique genetic libraries, ecological roles, and evolutionary histories that vanish every day.
That is exactly why TAXA NATURAE cannot wait. Nathanael Maury’s project to photograph and document every species on Earth is not a leisurely scientific catalogue. It is an emergency archive. Every day of delay means more species that will never be recorded, never be seen in high-resolution scientific detail, never leave a lasting visual and taxonomic record for the generations that inherit a poorer planet. The work must happen now — while the species still exist.