The Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni) is gone, forever. Lonesome George, a sad sentinel for his subspecies and a symbol of the destruction of species caused by humankind, died today of unknown causes. George was the last survivor of his subspecies of the famed Galapagos tortoise, which contributed to Charles Darwin developing his theory of evolution when he noticed the differences in tortoises and other wildlife, residing on the various Galapagos Islands.

Sadder yet is that the extinction of this sub-species is only the tip of the iceberg, given climate change and other factors. Every day species are disappearing forever in one of the greatest waves of extinction ever in the history of the planet, on par with the wave of extinction that spelled doom for the dinosaurs. But the current wave of extinction is different in that one species, Homo sapiens, is so wildly out of control that we are the cause of extinction of countless other species.

Unlike the highly visible death of Lonesome George and his subspecies, most species are becoming extinct without us even knowing when the last bell tolls. Human factors—habitat ...

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