An Australian National University scientist says the planet is losing species at a similar rate to the period when the dinosaurs were wiped out.

Will Steffen from the Fenner School of Environment says the planet is in the midst of a new geological age, the Anthropocene, in which humans are causing mass species extinction.

He says the era began with the industrial revolution and accelerated in the 1950s as humans began burning more fossil fuels and consuming more resources.

Professor Steffen says the current levels of species extinction are at least a hundred times greater than natural loss rates.

"There've been five big extinction events in the past, the most famous one was the loss of the dinosaurs and so on, but this one appears to be as fast and as extensive as those and that's why people who do do a lot of work on biodiversity are now saying that we're probably now in the earth's six greatest extinction event," he said.

Professor Steffen says the Anthropocene age will continue for some considerable time.

"Even if we cut down emissions to zero or close to zero tomorrow, there would be significant amounts of extra CO2 up there for centuries into the future, and I think also in terms of biodiversity loss, there is what some people call committed biodiversity loss, or species that are on their way to extinction and there probably isn't much we can do to turn them around," he said.