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>what do you mean by sustainability Biological life existed for 5 orders of magnitude longer than civilization without the sort of devastating consequence civi

>what do you mean by sustainability Biological life existed for 5 orders of magnitude longer than civilization without the sort of devastating consequence civilization has wrought. The cut off is civilization suggesting that it is no more disruptive than biological life to the long term sustainability of itself, but that is just obviously not looking like the case right now. Exponential population growth in a resource-constrained system will hit a limit and the result will not be pretty.

AlanSE 9y ago
> Biological life existed for 5 orders of magnitude longer than civilization without the sort of devastating consequence civilization has wrought. That is far from scientifically certain. Out of the extremely numerous extinction events in Earth's history, 5 of them have been extremely major, and we are probably going through the 6th right now. Probably. It's still too early to make statements about this. Will the geological record of the age of humans be more pronounced than the other events? Probably, but we can't claim that wearing a scientist hat. It's even more dubious to claim that this 6th event will have a more strongly negative effect on biodiversity. Things are happening so fast, and once all is said and done, humans may ultimately increase the diversity of Earth-derived life, because we have the ability to recombine existing species and even bring back functional extinct ones. It all depends on how we manage from here on out.
marcosdumay 9y ago
> without the sort of devastating consequence civilization has wrought First, define "devastating consequence" in clear terms. Then, and only then, go search the web for "oxygen catastrophe".
njarboe 9y ago
"Exponential population growth in a resource-constrained system" is how biological systems have behaved for billions of years. It may not be pretty but very natural.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  True. But also: natural sucks, and we want a better outcome.

AlanSE 9y ago

> Biological life existed for 5 orders of magnitude longer than civilization without the sort of devastating consequence civilization has wrought. That is far from scientifically certain. Out of the extremely numerous extinction events in Earth's history, 5 of them have been extremely major, and we are probably going through the 6th right now. Probably. It's still too early to make statements about this. Will the geological record of the age of humans be more pronounced than the other events? Probably, but we can't claim that wearing a scientist hat. It's even more dubious to claim that this 6th event will have a more strongly negative effect on biodiversity. Things are happening so fast, and once all is said and done, humans may ultimately increase the diversity of Earth-derived life, because we have the ability to recombine existing species and even bring back functional extinct ones. It all depends on how we manage from here on out.

marcosdumay 9y ago

> without the sort of devastating consequence civilization has wrought First, define "devastating consequence" in clear terms. Then, and only then, go search the web for "oxygen catastrophe".

njarboe 9y ago

"Exponential population growth in a resource-constrained system" is how biological systems have behaved for billions of years. It may not be pretty but very natural.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
True. But also: natural sucks, and we want a better outcome.