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Related: About this forumThe Extinction Domino Effect That Could Annihilate Life on Earth Has Already Started
Is the extinction of the human race the final domino to fall in a chain of extinctions and species die offs that may have always started? What can we do to save the planet before the domino ends all life on earth?
msongs
(67,129 posts)StevieM
(10,499 posts)It has happened before.
violetpastille
(1,483 posts)Yet, I do not think it is only fossil fuel that is causing extinctions.
I learned only yesterday that 2/3 of the rivers in New Zealand, (which we think of as the last redoubt, right?) are so polluted that not only can you not drink from them, they cannot be swum in or even waded in.
This is because of the unregulated dairy industry in NZ. If the water is poisoned, then the biome is poisoned.
And there are other examples of industries besides fuel that are polluting our delicate ecology. Textiles, tech. etc.
https://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/our-smartphone-addiction-is-costing-the-earth-1299378
If we can draw the brakes on ALL consumption...if we live as our grandparents did, more simply..we can earn our bugs back. Bug by bug. Each decision we make to conserve, may mean one more bug, one less latte =one more bug.
One less cheap teeshirt one less crust of bread stolen from a hungry child...
As the great Depeche Mode once said, "Everything counts in large amounts." and we can all make a difference if we decide to go in that other, less consumer direction.
A modest proposal. Fuck Christmas. Fuck it. Let's walk to our nearest patch of nature and swear to it that we ain't buying shit.
"Sorry kids, I love you too much to trade your futures for roomfuls of plastic crap."
"It's your favorite for dinner honey! Lentil loaf!"
Kidding not kidding.
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)Life on Earth has survived and recovered and flourished from far worse than anything Humans have done. Humans might not survive Humans, which is why it's imperative we successfully colonize off-world, but life on Earth will continue for a very long time even through the nastiest past extinctions. That line from Jurassic Park remains true: Life finds a way.
StevieM
(10,499 posts)I don't doubt that life will survive, as it has other mass extinctions. But in 200 years it is entirely plausible that the human race will be extinct.
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)It would take a complete collapse of the biosphere of multi-cellular organisms to effectively reset the clock on life and I just don't see that happening. Even our worst-case anthropogenic scenarios, devastating for us to be sure, don't come close to past events. And with the vast numbers of Humans alive, some will survive to form new pockets of civilization. They'll be able to rummage though the remains of our civilization to jumpstart their own development. Who knows, Humans surviving past the 6th extinction might still colonize beyond Earth before the end of the millennium, having access to much of what we have already learned.
This is what really bothers me about doom-and-gloomers. They oversell the apocalypse, which means people get paralyzed by fear or they shrug their shoulders in indifference because there's nothing we can (or will) do. No. This is wrong. We have to prepare for what's coming and ensure as much of what we can of the continuance of technological civilization. We need to face the reality that things are going to get nasty despite our hand-wringing, half-assed attempts, and denials. We aren't going to stop 2 degrees C from happening. We aren't going to stop at 2 degrees C either. We fucked up. We are continuing to fuck up. We will continue to fuck up. All that we can do, because it's much too late to do what we should have done, is prepare for the consequences and try to survive the new normal. Billions will perish but not all at once. Decades of starvation, disease, war. All until a new equilibrium is attained. Some pockets will survive, others will develop as survivors find one another.
I would hope something of a miracle happens that we avert the worst of it, but I think we're pretty much committed to this course and live in one of the darker timelines. We need to be realistic about what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. And how Human civilization is going to live through it.
StevieM
(10,499 posts)I haven't given up, I am just cognizant of how bad it is and how bad it might become.
http://globalwarming.berrens.nl/globalwarming.htm?fbclid=IwAR1c-FicE0ymR3mpw66y9POjeHfR9z2cztdpCUoZDOirWgmDL397JZUY5D0
Duppers
(28,088 posts)Last edited Sat Dec 1, 2018, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)
Bill Nye on Terraforming Mars: Are You Guys High?
https://futurism.com/bill-nye-mars-terraforming-high
"Nye isnt alone in his thinking, either noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, another well-known science advocate, also believes any plans to make Mars livable for humans are absurd."
And here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/11/19/bill-nye-mars-were-not-going-live-there-make-like-earth/1905447002/
And here:
"Neil deGrasse Tyson Says Humans Will Never Colonize Mars"
https://futurism.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-humans-colonize-mars
This is exactly what my hubs, a PhD NASA physicist, has been saying all along: the idea is preposterous -- especially given that we aren't even taking care of planet Earth enough to sustain human and most other life here.
We simply don't have the resources to create the biological diversity on Mars that we have here and it's exactly that biological diversity that is needed to sustain us. Colonizing Mars is an extremely unrealistic pipe dream.
NASA ppl know this too but have to come up with acceptable and exciting ideas simply to get continued funding from a very naive Congress.
Gawd, we cannot ask that NASA come up with ideas to help combat global climate change, the undeniable #1 threat to existence of most all life. And we're facing this before the end of this century. But what can we expect from a Congress and a population who still believe in a Sky Daddy who is not going to let bad things happen to them.
People should be reading more science and less science fiction. Seriously.
donco
(1,548 posts)time you seen A lightning bug?
cvoogt
(949 posts)Humans on the other hand.. Earth doesn't care about humans... but humans should care for Earth like their lives depend on it, because they do! Mars is less hospitable and the moon would suck to live on.
bdamomma
(63,562 posts)this can't get any dire the facts are out there.