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It seems like humans could also cause them to be bigger. Food distribution became more concentrated over time. If humans impact the world in a way that magnifie
by malandrew 9y ago
It seems like humans could also cause them to be bigger. Food distribution became more concentrated over time. If humans impact the world in a way that magnifies this power law distribution of food, we could end up with even bigger whales, right?
- BrailleHunting 9y agoIt's an oversimplification. According to climate models, much arable farmland will be destroyed by climate change. There will be increasing pressure for protein and calories from all sources. Perhaps whales could be domesticated. If not, rapid changes in ocean energy absorption and chemistry threaten the entire food chain. Another long-term consideration is industrial protein manufacturing to skip the risks and mess of CAFOs in Brazil and Texas, and fish feeding operations like the horrible fish farms throughout the world from Thailand to Norway. It maybe possible to greatly reduce the risk of a global pandemic if animals and people aren't kept in excesssively close proximity. Megafauna doesn't have much hope in the Holocene extinction event. One only need to look at the odd survival of avocados which were likely to have died out as humans likely killed their primary seed distribution omni or herbivores. There is little causal data, but it's a contributing factor. Holocene extinction will likely continue until the entire planet collapses, humans die out or kill everything that isn't or cannot be domesticated. There is simply too much energy already absorbed forcing climate change to be reversed even by redirecting all GDP into geoengineering... Greenland and Antarctica will melt over a thousand years, sea levels will rise 100 m (~300 ft).
- wizardforhire 9y agoThe reciprocal of this is that here in Oklahoma we've got animal breeders turning saltwater runoff from reinjection wells into mini seas so as they claim... to breed tiny pet whales. The goal is to have teacup size whales that fit into purses in a hundred years or so. Idk internet cuteness combined with the desire to eat them in a sustained way or something, I guess. I think the whole thing is crazy and unethical.
- GuiA 9y agoSource?
- cm2012 9y agoThere's no such thing as real hundred year business plans.
- kuschku 9y agoOr so you claim. There’s enough family business in Europe or Japan that existed for centuries or even a thousand years that for them a hundred year business plan can make sense.
- ekianjo 9y agolongevity has nothIng to do with havinv hundred years plans. Most businesses hardly a vision beyond 20 years from now, because the longer you try to project the more preposterous your assumptions are.
- Baeocystin 9y agoI think Nintendo qualifies, no?
- graphitezepp 9y agoI would say so, but adaptation historically has been a large part of the plan so does that still count?
- Baeocystin 9y agoSure, why not? They're still in the gaming industry, after all. I'm actually pretty impressed with their cross-century durability.
- sametmax 9y agoThat's some douglas adam idea right here.