Teetering on the dire precipice between existence and annihilation, time is running out for the Royal Bengal tiger, the Great White shark, and Victorian koalas.

There are reports that species in Brazil’s coastal rainforest are disappearing faster than scientists can keep track of them. This is owed in part to the ripple effect of extinction, creatures toppling off the planet in a chain reaction.

But perhaps the most brutal and rapid decline is coming for the world’s oceans, with scientists predicting a cataclysmic period of mass extinction currently upon us, the ramifications for which will in turn be our own demise. From 1900-2010, freshwater fish species in North America went extinct at a rate 877 times faster than the rate found in the fossil record, while estimates indicate the rate may double between now and 2050.

Even the diversity of our communication will not be spared from the inevitable collapse wrought by industrial capitalism, with half of the world’s languages suffering a projected die-off in our lifetimes.

The end product of our modern civilization is thus the ultimate silence.

~ compiled by Molly J, Earth First! Journal collective