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Climate change will inevitably result in a reduction in biodiversity on Earth. I would argue that that is automatically bad. Biodiversity is the single greatest
by DanI-S 16y ago
Climate change will inevitably result in a reduction in biodiversity on Earth. I would argue that that is automatically bad. Biodiversity is the single greatest untapped resource that we have - it's the reason this is Earth, and not a rock. It would be beyond irresponsible to allow biodiversity to be lost before we have even scraped the surface of understanding it.
I can't believe that the argument has shifted from "climate change is not happening" to "even if it is happening, climate change doesn't matter". At least some scientists would agree with the first statement. I doubt that any would agree with the second.
- ugh 16y agoWell, a reduction of biodiversity would be a possible effect of climate change that has to be considered. I’m not disagreeing with you.
- lhorie 16y ago>> Climate change will inevitably result in a reduction in biodiversity on Earth. Do you have a source for that claim? Things like the ice age and deep sea lifeforms spring to my mind whenever someone says that.
- DanI-S 16y agoOn an evolutionary scale, it is very difficult to know what our intervention will do to the level of diversity on the planet - but there is a vast amount of evidence to suggest that climate change causes mass extinctions. Certainly the ice age did. Mass extinctions reduce biodiversity. We're already part way through the latest mass extinction event, which began soon after humans arrived on the scene: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction Since we have reached a level of self awareness which allows us to consciously limit the damage we do, why not try to preserve diversity where we can? Each organism that becomes extinct represents a loss of information about one particular form of life. They're like books in a big, awesome library, and we're burning them to keep warm.