Last Chance to See the Humans? A Green Criminological Examination of the 6th Wave of Extinction

Green criminology, or the study of environmental (“green”) harms, crime, and injustice, has explored a wide range of issues over the past three decades. An important environmental issue that has received little attention is species extinction. To facilitate the discussion about harms against animals from species extinction, this article reviews relevant literature and frames the processes propelling species extinction from a political economic green criminological (PEG-C) perspective. The driving motivation of capitalism—profit making—leads to continually expanding raw material extraction and production that contributes to escalating forms of ecological destruction that drives species extinction. The contemporary extinction cycle is called the 6th wave of extinction. Researchers in the hard sciences note that this 6th extinction is being caused by human behavior, making it distinct from the five previous extinction periods. They also note that there is little hope that this extinction period can be easily remedied. Significant alterations in environmental policy and human behavior are required to save species from extinction.