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So basically this heat wave has wiped away a substantial amount of biomass in the impacted area. We are watching the world wither away, quite rapidly, with not

So basically this heat wave has wiped away a substantial amount of biomass in the impacted area. We are watching the world wither away, quite rapidly, with nothing to show for it.

spywaregorilla 5y ago
> We are watching the world wither away, quite rapidly, with nothing to show for it. Except for the entirety of human civilization, sure.
- Daishiman 5y ago
  The entirety of human civilization existed for all but the last 200 years without combustion engines.
  - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
    But most humans by far have existed in the last 200 years. The current mean birth age of all humans ever (50% humans born before & 50% born after) is probably only like 1950 at the oldest.
    - CameronNemo 5y ago
      Why is that a good thing? Humans, their livestock, and their crops have grown to dominate much of the land. That reduces biodiversity and makes for a less resilient ecosystem overall.
      - alexose 5y ago
        At the risk of sounding like a movie villain... anyone who's tried to go to Yosemite on a weekend must agree with this on some level
    - sharkjacobs 5y ago
      That's not really relevant but also not true. A reasonable estimate is that ~105 billion modern homo sapiens have ever lived[1], the inflection point you're talking about (50% humans born before & 50% born after) probably happened closer to 200-300CE[2] [1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12288594/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12288594/ [2]: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-are-the-demographics-of-heaven/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-are-the-demographi...
      - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
        Hmm interesting. Would the number of human-years or human-hours lived be different? Perhaps looking at population/exponential graphs is giving me a false intuition because the birth & growth rates were much higher in the past but the overall growth rate stayed the same. It is relevant if you think that the individual unit of human civilization is a single person.
  - spywaregorilla 5y ago
    And? I think human civilization is a lot more impressive now than 200 years ago.
    - klyrs 5y ago
      Yeah, early humans were only capable of extincting megafauna. Today, we're doing dozens of species per day! We'd be much more impressive as a species if we didn't limit the use of DDT, CFCs, etc
      - smokelegend 5y ago
        Crazy to think that in the life span of this planet is ??? Before christ? After christ? A million years or two? Exactly, no one knows the answer.... We can't agree as a civilization when this planet started, but everyone knows when it's going to end.... irony is thick around these parts... "One thing I know, I know nothing."
        klyrs 5y ago
        Weird troll. You don't need to know what day a person was born, to recognize that they've got a dangerously high fever. The world will keep turning, regardless of fitness for human life.
      - spywaregorilla 5y ago
        That's a pretty bad metric for success.
        klyrs 5y ago
        Agreed, I'm playing with the neutrality of the word "impressive." A tsunami is certainly impressive... Modern humans are more impressive than our ancestors, according to you. Is that good, or are we a tsunami?
        spywaregorilla 5y ago
- howaboutnope 5y ago
  > Ah, yeah. We're gonna go to Mars. And then of course we're gonna colonize deep space. With our microwave hot dogs and plastic vomit, fake dog shit and cinnamon dental floss, lemon-scented toilet paper and sneakers with lights in the heels. And all these other impressive things we've done down here. But let me ask you this: what are we gonna tell the intergalactic council of ministers the first time one of our teenage mothers throws their newborn baby into a dumpster? How are we gonna explain that to the space people? How are we gonna let them know that our ambassador was only late for the meeting because his breakfast was cold and he had to spend half an hour punching his wife around the kitchen? And what are they gonna think when they find out, its just a local custom, that over 80 million women in the Third world have had their clitorises forcibly removed in order to reduce their sexual pleasure so they won't cheat on their husbands? Can't you just sense how eager the rest of the universe is for us to show up? -- George Carlin Our material wealth and our industrial capabilities just make our failings so much more shameful in my books.
  - spywaregorilla 5y ago
    This quote seems really pathetic to me personally. One because it feels defeatist and ignores bounds of progress made against a problem that is simply difficult. Two because it highlights specific problems for which carlin has no personal culpability. Organizing civilization is hard. I have no doubts the council of intergalactic ministers had a difficult run as well. That is the nature of nature.
    - scrollaway 5y ago
      Completely agreed with you. It's one thing to acknowledge humanity's faults, another to just be defeatist to the point of ignoring all good things we have done as a species just because we've done bad ones too.
      - iNane9000 5y ago
        Self improvement requires not falling into the mindset of blame. It’s “them” destroying the planet, rather than “us” solving the hard problems together. I think only human understanding and mastery of ego will determine the fate of the planet. We can do it, if we work on ourselves first.
- riffic 5y ago
  the arrogance to think that human civilization will make it through this unscathed, or even deserves to.
  - spywaregorilla 5y ago
    Human civ will probably not survive. Deserves is about as grey as individuals committing abuse driven by their own victimization
r00fus 5y ago
Profits are what we have. For the few.
- cronix 5y ago
  So your paycheck is generated from losses?
GoodJokes 5y ago
You do know wiped away is a pretty fake news headline term yes? These animals and fruit will bounce back pretty fast. Wither away? Drama is getting big on here
refurb 5y ago
Nothing to show for it? I mean if I get a cut I won’t die of a bacterial infection, so that’s pretty cool.
- yaitsyaboi 5y ago
  Ironic since the biggest threat to effective antibiotics is industrial agriculture practices.
  - refurb 5y ago
    ‘Tis better to have antibiotics and lost them than to have never had them at all.
erdos4d 5y ago
Well, shareholders are getting fat, so its all good, eh?

So basically this heat wave has wiped away a substantial amount of biomass in the impacted area. We are watching the world wither away, quite rapidly, with nothing to show for it.

spywaregorilla 5y ago

> We are watching the world wither away, quite rapidly, with nothing to show for it. Except for the entirety of human civilization, sure.

Daishiman 5y ago
The entirety of human civilization existed for all but the last 200 years without combustion engines.
- KingMachiavelli 5y ago
  But most humans by far have existed in the last 200 years. The current mean birth age of all humans ever (50% humans born before & 50% born after) is probably only like 1950 at the oldest.
  - CameronNemo 5y ago
    Why is that a good thing? Humans, their livestock, and their crops have grown to dominate much of the land. That reduces biodiversity and makes for a less resilient ecosystem overall.
    - alexose 5y ago
      At the risk of sounding like a movie villain... anyone who's tried to go to Yosemite on a weekend must agree with this on some level
  - sharkjacobs 5y ago
    That's not really relevant but also not true. A reasonable estimate is that ~105 billion modern homo sapiens have ever lived[1], the inflection point you're talking about (50% humans born before & 50% born after) probably happened closer to 200-300CE[2] [1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12288594/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12288594/ [2]: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-are-the-demographics-of-heaven/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-are-the-demographi...
    - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
      Hmm interesting. Would the number of human-years or human-hours lived be different? Perhaps looking at population/exponential graphs is giving me a false intuition because the birth & growth rates were much higher in the past but the overall growth rate stayed the same. It is relevant if you think that the individual unit of human civilization is a single person.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  And? I think human civilization is a lot more impressive now than 200 years ago.
  - klyrs 5y ago
    Yeah, early humans were only capable of extincting megafauna. Today, we're doing dozens of species per day! We'd be much more impressive as a species if we didn't limit the use of DDT, CFCs, etc
    - smokelegend 5y ago
      Crazy to think that in the life span of this planet is ??? Before christ? After christ? A million years or two? Exactly, no one knows the answer.... We can't agree as a civilization when this planet started, but everyone knows when it's going to end.... irony is thick around these parts... "One thing I know, I know nothing."
      - klyrs 5y ago
        Weird troll. You don't need to know what day a person was born, to recognize that they've got a dangerously high fever. The world will keep turning, regardless of fitness for human life.
    - spywaregorilla 5y ago
      That's a pretty bad metric for success.
      - klyrs 5y ago
        Agreed, I'm playing with the neutrality of the word "impressive." A tsunami is certainly impressive... Modern humans are more impressive than our ancestors, according to you. Is that good, or are we a tsunami?
        spywaregorilla 5y ago
howaboutnope 5y ago
> Ah, yeah. We're gonna go to Mars. And then of course we're gonna colonize deep space. With our microwave hot dogs and plastic vomit, fake dog shit and cinnamon dental floss, lemon-scented toilet paper and sneakers with lights in the heels. And all these other impressive things we've done down here. But let me ask you this: what are we gonna tell the intergalactic council of ministers the first time one of our teenage mothers throws their newborn baby into a dumpster? How are we gonna explain that to the space people? How are we gonna let them know that our ambassador was only late for the meeting because his breakfast was cold and he had to spend half an hour punching his wife around the kitchen? And what are they gonna think when they find out, its just a local custom, that over 80 million women in the Third world have had their clitorises forcibly removed in order to reduce their sexual pleasure so they won't cheat on their husbands? Can't you just sense how eager the rest of the universe is for us to show up? -- George Carlin Our material wealth and our industrial capabilities just make our failings so much more shameful in my books.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  This quote seems really pathetic to me personally. One because it feels defeatist and ignores bounds of progress made against a problem that is simply difficult. Two because it highlights specific problems for which carlin has no personal culpability. Organizing civilization is hard. I have no doubts the council of intergalactic ministers had a difficult run as well. That is the nature of nature.
  - scrollaway 5y ago
    Completely agreed with you. It's one thing to acknowledge humanity's faults, another to just be defeatist to the point of ignoring all good things we have done as a species just because we've done bad ones too.
    - iNane9000 5y ago
      Self improvement requires not falling into the mindset of blame. It’s “them” destroying the planet, rather than “us” solving the hard problems together. I think only human understanding and mastery of ego will determine the fate of the planet. We can do it, if we work on ourselves first.
riffic 5y ago
the arrogance to think that human civilization will make it through this unscathed, or even deserves to.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  Human civ will probably not survive. Deserves is about as grey as individuals committing abuse driven by their own victimization

r00fus 5y ago

Profits are what we have. For the few.

cronix 5y ago
So your paycheck is generated from losses?

GoodJokes 5y ago

You do know wiped away is a pretty fake news headline term yes? These animals and fruit will bounce back pretty fast. Wither away? Drama is getting big on here

refurb 5y ago

Nothing to show for it? I mean if I get a cut I won’t die of a bacterial infection, so that’s pretty cool.

yaitsyaboi 5y ago
Ironic since the biggest threat to effective antibiotics is industrial agriculture practices.
- refurb 5y ago
  ‘Tis better to have antibiotics and lost them than to have never had them at all.

erdos4d 5y ago

Well, shareholders are getting fat, so its all good, eh?