If the course of human history is any model, then the wheels are already turning on Earth’s sixth mass extinction, thanks to habitat destruction, pollution and now global warming, a scientific analysis of millions of years of data revealed Friday.

That means North American mammals are well on the way - perhaps as much as half way - to a level of extinction comparable to other epic die-offs, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Governments must act urgently to halt loss of habitats and invading species that are posing major threats to biodiversity and causing species extinctions across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, according to a landmark new study.

“Earth is experiencing its sixth great extinction event and the new report reveals that this threat is advancing on six major fronts,” says the report’s lead author, Professor Richard Kingsford of the University of New South Wales.”

Human pollution is turning the seas into acid so quickly that the coming decades will recreate conditions not seen on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs, scientists will warn today.

The rapid acidification is caused by the massive amounts of carbon dioxide belched from chimneys and exhausts that dissolve in the ocean. The chemical change is placing “unprecedented” pressure on marine life such as shellfish and lobsters and could cause widespread extinctions, the experts say.

Twenty-one animal species, including the cheetah, three dolphin families and an Egyptian vulture, were added to the list of those in danger of extinction by a UN conference that ended Friday.

Six other bird species as well as manatees have also been placed on the list of animals benefiting from increased protections, called list I.

In addition, next year has been proclaimed the “year of the gorilla” to help the survival of threatened species.

Man is responsible for the greatest extinction of wildlife since the demise of the dinosaurs with a 35% decrease in biodiversity over the past 35 years, according to new research.

The finding is expected to emerge in the latest audit of the world’s animal and plant life by WWF, formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature.

It will warn that humanity’s ruthless exploitation of the environment is creating an unsustainable “ecological debt”, with more species wiped out in the past 35 years than in the previous 300.