Since life began on Earth, several major mass extinctions have significantly exceeded the background extinction rate.
Regardless of how one answers that question, it is clear that we are losing species at rates that, while exceedingly difficult to calculate, are above the background extinction rate and far exceed the speciation rate.
range from a handful to upwards of 200 species a day, most scientists believe that the rate of species loss is greater now than at any time in human history- with extinctions occuring at rates hundreds of times higher than background extinction rates.
 See also: Organ, Plant, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Extinction
  
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