An advertisement warning holiday pedestrians about mass extinction—and asking for their help—first appeared in Times Square this week. The ad which flashes on CBS’s Super LED Screen between 7th and 8th avenues was created by US conservation organization, the Center for Biological Diversity.
Sporting photos of iconic species, the clever ad quickly X’s them out, until it says ‘Extinction is Forever’, and then asks New Yorkers and visitors to help save species by visiting www.extinctioncrisis.org, a website set up especially for the advertisement.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the ad will appear over 600 times until the New Year and be seen by an estimated 25 million people.
Some scientists warn that we are entering into a sixth mass extinction event with extinction rates currently estimated at 100 to 1000 times higher than the background extinction rate, i.e. the average rate of extinctions as determined by fossil-studies.
You can see the ad yourself here: Extinction Crisis PSA.
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