We -- not an asteroid -- may cause next mass extinction
By Eugene Robinson
The Washington Post
There are roughly eight million plant and animal species in the world. One of them homo sapiens may soon wipe out a million of the rest. And were just getting started.
Thats the depressing bottom line from a comprehensive new United Nations report on biodiversity. Species are going extinct at a rate unmatched in human history; and the die-off is accelerating. It sounds melodramatic to say that were killing the planet, but thats what the scientific evidence tells us. And ignorant, short-sighted leadership makes optimistic scenarios elusive.
Species extinction is one of those problems whose vast scale, in space and time, makes it difficult to comprehend, let alone address globally. As any paleontologist can tell you, species appear and disappear naturally at a gradual rate with no human intervention. And in the 3.5 billion-year history of life on earth, there have been five abrupt mass extinctions when more than three-quarters of all living species were quickly wiped out. The most recent came 66 million years ago, when an asteroid strike is believed to have killed off the dinosaurs.
If there are intelligent observers 66 million years from now, their scientists may conclude that the sixth mass extinction was caused by us; and that we saw what we were doing but lacked the wisdom and courage to stop ourselves.
The next species to go extinct may be some scruffy weed-like plant or weird little insect that youve never heard of. But that weed may synthesize a chemical that acts as a magic bullet against certain deadly cancers, or that insect may control the population of some other insect that harbors a plaguelike virus. Well never know. Theyll be gone.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/robinson-we-not-an-asteroid-may-cause-next-mass-extinction/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=7002b05cf5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-7002b05cf5-228635337
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Apocalypsis hominum
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The UN's report suggests we may have already started.
AZ8theist
(5,495 posts)Provided vast amounts of wealth for a couple of generations, but the ensuing population growth and human expansion has led to where we are now. In the MIDDLE of the 6th Great Extinction. NOT the beginning...
AZ8theist
(5,495 posts)That the planet could not support more than about 3B humans...
BigmanPigman
(51,630 posts)and have discussed this with others. I prefer getting hit by a giant asteroid and I hope it makes a direct hit on where my family and I live. I would rather die instantly with my family, pets and friends gone too. It is better than suffering through the alternatives.
AZ8theist
(5,495 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)In the Mutually Assured Destruction days, many of us used to talk about heading TOWARDS "ground zero" in case of a nuclear war, instead of away from it. (We all strangely thought we knew where various ground zero points were). Who'd wanna live in a post nuclear war world.