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Even during the worst collapses, massive species extinctions took centuries or milleniums. Doing it in a couple of decades instead is unprecedented. Species
by bryanlarsen 1y ago
Even during the worst collapses, massive species extinctions took centuries or milleniums. Doing it in a couple of decades instead is unprecedented.
Species extinctions are insignificant if evolution and migration can allow other species to fill niches left behind. This is the first time extinctions are happening faster than evolution. And while migration is significantly disrupted by infrastructure.
As to your second comment, solar is the cheapest energy.
- jrowen 1y agoCheck out the Cretaceous-Paleogene. Pretty important one.
- oblio 1y agoPhew, you made me feel more optimistic about the world. Our current extinction event is comparable to one where a literal huge asteroid hit the planet :-)))
- jrowen 1y agoI mean, I do actually find solace in the fact that extinction events in general can create new conditions for new forms of life, and that one in particular paved the way for mammals. But, my comment was only responding to the assertion that "This is the first time extinctions are happening faster than evolution."
- bryanlarsen 1y agoWe have fossils of dinosaurs that existed 40,000 years after that one.
- jrowen 1y agoYes, and some dinosaurs are still alive today. We call them birds. The environment of the earth was still radically altered in an instant, and our ancestors were the winners.
- bryanlarsen 1y agoThose were fossils of non-avian dinosaurs.
- jrowen 1y agoOk I'm really missing your point then. Can you restate it in a way that contradicts something I'm saying?
- bryanlarsen 1y agoI'm saying that the current extinction event is considerably worse and faster than the Cretaceous-Paleogene one.
- jrowen 1y agoBased on the prediction that some significant percentage of life will be extinct decades from now? I don't see how anything that has happened yet in our timeline compares in any way to a massive asteroid impact.