Well, the short answer is, our lives here on earth are like a circle. There is the top of the food chain, and the bottom, but we are all connected in the middle in some way. For example, if a lion normally eats rabbits, but the rabbits have gone extinct, the lions will either go extinct or will find another food source. This will affect the animals that eat the other food source, and the other animals will either go extinct or find another food source, and so forth and so on. It’s like a domino effect. It will throw the environment into a tailspin.

Food is not the only way that extinction will affect us. There are other implications as well. If one species is needed to balance an environment or fill a certain niche, and it goes extinct, all of a sudden there is a “butterfly” effect. The environment it lives in will be lopsided, so to speak, because all of a sudden there is an empty niche, and/or the environment has suddenly gone off-balance.

This also leads in to the changing climate of the Pacific Ocean, in that species who cannot survive in warmer waters will die, leading to the above effects.

Yes, this is the short answer :-). If you would like further info or clarification, you can email me.