ABSTRACT
Nature is full of such interactions between organisms that require precise timing to be effective. These are adaptations to the natural cycles of seasons and night and day and they have slowly evolved over countless generations. However, things are changing at an unprecedented pace through the intervention of a single species, Homo sapiens. The rate of change is too rapid for plants and animals to adapt to and this is one of the many threats to the diversity of living organisms on our planet. Homo sapiens is now precipitating a massive wave of species extinction comparable to that which wiped out the dinosaurs. People are able to estimate with reasonable accuracy the pace of evolution over the geological ages by studying the evolution of the DNA molecule. Changes in climate are natural phenomena that are well documented, such as the various ice ages that several times covered northern Europe with blankets of ice and snow.
