3 ms·

Agree, and this point, that the current age can't yet count as a mass extinction, was made well in the book "The Ends of the World", which is about the five maj

by sixbrx 4y ago

Agree, and this point, that the current age can't yet count as a mass extinction, was made well in the book "The Ends of the World", which is about the five major mass extinctions (and which was a good read). It's not that what we've done so far isn't a possible start on a mass extinction, it's just that the big five (and especially the end-Permian) were mind-bogglingly destructive "perfect storms". They killed most organisms of all types and sizes in all environments over the entire world. It's hard to imagine how that's even possible!

filoeleven 4y ago
“If current trends continue, we are on target for meeting the requirements for another mass extinction.”
toss1 4y ago
>> It's hard to imagine how that's even possible! And that is exactly what will make it possible. We, in our individual experience see only the stuff moving around us. Moving earth for a few days for a new house or driveway or shopping center. But we have no realization that it was years ago that humans surpassed all other natural processes as movers of earth [0], or that over half the world's land is use for agriculture [1], or that we've already increased the CO2 levels to 150% of the value from 1750 [2] or reduced insect biomass by 76% in a few decades [3], or polluted every raindrop with beyond-unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals [4], etc., etc., etc., and that's just the stuff off the top of my head. The naive view is 'How could puny humans have an effect so big?'. Yet we do, and it is because we can magnify physical forces and scale operations. No more than a failure to imagine that you could drive off a cliff and die does not mean that you cannot, there is zero to say that we will not make an error with this scaling and effectively kill our planet and ourselves. In both cases, the failure to imagine how it would even be possible will massively magnify the risk. [0] https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/humans-overtake-nature-as-the-biggest-contributors-to-landscape-evolution/ https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/humans-overtake-nature-as-the-big... [1] https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture [2] https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/ https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations [4] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/pfas-in-rainwater-what-it-means-for-health https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/pfas-in-rainwater-...

by sixbrx 4y ago

filoeleven 4y ago

“If current trends continue, we are on target for meeting the requirements for another mass extinction.”

toss1 4y ago

>> It's hard to imagine how that's even possible! And that is exactly what will make it possible. We, in our individual experience see only the stuff moving around us. Moving earth for a few days for a new house or driveway or shopping center. But we have no realization that it was years ago that humans surpassed all other natural processes as movers of earth [0], or that over half the world's land is use for agriculture [1], or that we've already increased the CO2 levels to 150% of the value from 1750 [2] or reduced insect biomass by 76% in a few decades [3], or polluted every raindrop with beyond-unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals [4], etc., etc., etc., and that's just the stuff off the top of my head. The naive view is 'How could puny humans have an effect so big?'. Yet we do, and it is because we can magnify physical forces and scale operations. No more than a failure to imagine that you could drive off a cliff and die does not mean that you cannot, there is zero to say that we will not make an error with this scaling and effectively kill our planet and ourselves. In both cases, the failure to imagine how it would even be possible will massively magnify the risk. [0] https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/humans-overtake-nature-as-the-biggest-contributors-to-landscape-evolution/ https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/humans-overtake-nature-as-the-big... [1] https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture [2] https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/ https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations [4] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/pfas-in-rainwater-what-it-means-for-health https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/pfas-in-rainwater-...