5 ms·

The cause of the wasting symptom is still unknown, that's why the link in the article leads to a school that is looking for specimens to analyze. It would be v

by bbarn 6y ago

The cause of the wasting symptom is still unknown, that's why the link in the article leads to a school that is looking for specimens to analyze. It would be very surprising, to me at least, to find ultimately humans did not contribute to this chain of events. Whether it's something like microplastics causing the lesions on the star fish or water temperature/chemical concentration leading to some fungal spore growing, I suspect ancient kelp forests aren't vanishing without our help.

s1artibartfast 6y ago
This is an entirely different point than mine about harvest. It is entirely possible it is in some way related to human activity. It is also possible that it is completely unrelated. Booms, busts, and radical ecosystem changes do happen all the time in nature.
- boringg 6y ago
  They do, it’s true, but not on the time horizon that we have been seeing in the last 50 years which seems to be speeding up
  - fingerlocks 6y ago
    How do we know that? I’m not disagreeing with you- but I can’t imagine any historic evidence could rule out the existence of a highly volatile and cyclical population change.
  - samatman 6y ago
    That's not true at all. Nature isn't gradual, it's catastropic. The Younger Drayas caused a 7° to 10° C drop worldwide in a matter of decades. Volcanic eruptions, sudden drought, earthquakes, asteroid impacts, abrupt population crashes: sudden change is normal. Yes, a lot of the change we see now is human impact. But this could easily be a virus that hit the sea stars out of the blue. We just don't know.
    - boringg 6y ago
      As a man of a science background, nothing is impossible it's just highly unlikely. If you've been watching the changes in the aquatic habitat and the sea life populations they becoming simple / basic and more homogeneous as a function of changing water temperatures (and harvesting of sea life without the ability to replenish). I won't disagree that it is possible virus or range of other possibility - I am not providing an answer. However it's a very high probability that the natural ability for that ecosystem to defend against the virus (if it was) was likely impeded by human impacts which change the water temperature and the species of life that live in that area. We could posit many different theories, the fact is that nature is changing rapidly under our watch and to insinuate that it is a natural occurrence is disengeinuine and irresponsible at best and seems to be the push of a false narrative to undermine the consensus in the scientific community.
ralusek 6y ago
Just to be clear, almost every species that has ever existed has gone extinct. And almost all of that has happened before humans existed. That being said, it's almost definitely due to humans, I just wanted to be pedantic.

by bbarn 6y ago

s1artibartfast 6y ago

This is an entirely different point than mine about harvest. It is entirely possible it is in some way related to human activity. It is also possible that it is completely unrelated. Booms, busts, and radical ecosystem changes do happen all the time in nature.

boringg 6y ago
They do, it’s true, but not on the time horizon that we have been seeing in the last 50 years which seems to be speeding up
- fingerlocks 6y ago
  How do we know that? I’m not disagreeing with you- but I can’t imagine any historic evidence could rule out the existence of a highly volatile and cyclical population change.
- samatman 6y ago
  That's not true at all. Nature isn't gradual, it's catastropic. The Younger Drayas caused a 7° to 10° C drop worldwide in a matter of decades. Volcanic eruptions, sudden drought, earthquakes, asteroid impacts, abrupt population crashes: sudden change is normal. Yes, a lot of the change we see now is human impact. But this could easily be a virus that hit the sea stars out of the blue. We just don't know.
  - boringg 6y ago
    As a man of a science background, nothing is impossible it's just highly unlikely. If you've been watching the changes in the aquatic habitat and the sea life populations they becoming simple / basic and more homogeneous as a function of changing water temperatures (and harvesting of sea life without the ability to replenish). I won't disagree that it is possible virus or range of other possibility - I am not providing an answer. However it's a very high probability that the natural ability for that ecosystem to defend against the virus (if it was) was likely impeded by human impacts which change the water temperature and the species of life that live in that area. We could posit many different theories, the fact is that nature is changing rapidly under our watch and to insinuate that it is a natural occurrence is disengeinuine and irresponsible at best and seems to be the push of a false narrative to undermine the consensus in the scientific community.

ralusek 6y ago

Just to be clear, almost every species that has ever existed has gone extinct. And almost all of that has happened before humans existed. That being said, it's almost definitely due to humans, I just wanted to be pedantic.