4 ms·

Lonely George has died and now an entire species is extinct

22 points by daegloe 8y ago

skilled 8y ago
NatGeo submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18858100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18858100
makerofspoons 8y ago
> "It's surprisingly devastating," she says. "They've been disappearing in the last two, three years. The rate of extinction is just really alarming for me." "This is the story that we're seeing in every single species, we had to go up to the mountain tops to see them, when they would have been all over the island (in the past)." It's everywhere that the extinction rate is alarming. We are in an era of profound ecological collapse.
- randyrand 8y ago
  collapse? Or just change? Adaption starts with mass death, even loss of entire species.
  - makerofspoons 8y ago
    Collapse- 60% of animal populations have been destroyed since 1970 (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-wildlife/wildlife-populations-plunge-almost-60-percent-since-1970-wwf-idUSKCN12R00F https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-wildlife/wild...) and unexpected interactions between stressors as well as positive feedback loops are creating an existential threat for our civilization (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328717301726 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001632871...). Ecosystems like coral reefs are being lost completely- they will simply be gone, there was no opportunity for change. The ecosystems are changing too fast for adaptation.
    - randyrand 8y ago
      60% of life dying just sounds like adaptation to me. Many species will survive, and those species will eventually split into new species.
      - makerofspoons 8y ago
        Perhaps- but the trend is continuing, what if all complex life is eliminated by the damage we are causing?
honkycat 8y ago
I have been doing a lot of reading about systems thinking and mental models. The klaxons have been blaring for a long time now. All of these truths are inconvenient. I have pretty much lost hope that we are going to fix anything. Let's hope these flaps of a butterflies wings do not lead to further ecological collapse and make our planet inhospitable to human survival.
- vokep 8y ago
  AGI is the answer. We made this mess and we'll make a tool to fix it sooner or later. Just lets hope that tool isn't a larger mess for us
- gregknicholson 8y ago
  For the sake of other species it's probably beneficial for humans to go extinct. In practice I think Earth will first become less hospitable to humans. The ones that survive will be those who can consume fewer resources. Maybe this partial human extinction will be enough to at least slow climate change.

22 points by daegloe 8y ago

NatGeo submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18858100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18858100

> "It's surprisingly devastating," she says. "They've been disappearing in the last two, three years. The rate of extinction is just really alarming for me." "This is the story that we're seeing in every single species, we had to go up to the mountain tops to see them, when they would have been all over the island (in the past)." It's everywhere that the extinction rate is alarming. We are in an era of profound ecological collapse.

randyrand 8y ago
collapse? Or just change? Adaption starts with mass death, even loss of entire species.
- makerofspoons 8y ago
  Collapse- 60% of animal populations have been destroyed since 1970 (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-wildlife/wildlife-populations-plunge-almost-60-percent-since-1970-wwf-idUSKCN12R00F https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-wildlife/wild...) and unexpected interactions between stressors as well as positive feedback loops are creating an existential threat for our civilization (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328717301726 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001632871...). Ecosystems like coral reefs are being lost completely- they will simply be gone, there was no opportunity for change. The ecosystems are changing too fast for adaptation.
  - randyrand 8y ago
    60% of life dying just sounds like adaptation to me. Many species will survive, and those species will eventually split into new species.
    - makerofspoons 8y ago
      Perhaps- but the trend is continuing, what if all complex life is eliminated by the damage we are causing?

honkycat 8y ago

I have been doing a lot of reading about systems thinking and mental models. The klaxons have been blaring for a long time now. All of these truths are inconvenient. I have pretty much lost hope that we are going to fix anything. Let's hope these flaps of a butterflies wings do not lead to further ecological collapse and make our planet inhospitable to human survival.

vokep 8y ago
AGI is the answer. We made this mess and we'll make a tool to fix it sooner or later. Just lets hope that tool isn't a larger mess for us
gregknicholson 8y ago
For the sake of other species it's probably beneficial for humans to go extinct. In practice I think Earth will first become less hospitable to humans. The ones that survive will be those who can consume fewer resources. Maybe this partial human extinction will be enough to at least slow climate change.