About 6,000 years ago there was a tiny island, called St. Paul Island, in the middle of the Bering Sea. It was a hundred miles away from the mainland. It only harbored a few species, including arctic foxes and woolly mammoths. One of the world's last populations of woolly mammoths have comfortably living in that are for for a few thousand years. They had a surplus of food, water, and lack of predators since humans got there at the 18th century. At this time there were drastic climate change that caused the sea levels to rise. This shrunk the land and herd size. Another negative effect was that because the climate was dry, there was less rainfall. This decreased lake levels. It ultimately decreased freshwater for the mammoths. Thus making drinking water more scarce. The rise of the sea also brought in more saltwater. This displaced the freshwater as well. Lack of freshwater was not the main cause of their extinction; however, it did play an indirect role in pushing the mammoths towards extinction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/science/mammoths-extinction-saint-paul-island-alaska.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ftrilobites
http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/history/why-did-the-woolly-mammoth-die-out.aspx
This article is so alarming because there is climate change and rising sea levels happening in the environment currently. These environmental issues can cause species to go extinct which will harm the human population as well. This article is a lesson for today's society.
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