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There's no rule that says the biosphere has to be resilient in every dimension we might push on it. If the biosphere has been stressed in a particular way and
by harshreality 12y ago
There's no rule that says the biosphere has to be resilient in every dimension we might push on it. If the biosphere has been stressed in a particular way and life (animal and mammalian life, specifically) rebounded, that does not mean the biosphere is resilient to any other kind of stressor, and it's only mostly assured that it's resilient to that particular one because of empirical evidence. We don't have models accurate enough to confirm your suspicions about the hardiness of the biosphere. There may be an attractor to current life-supporting conditions even under a broad range of stressors, but if human progress is adding an additional stressor (that we may not even recognize), we could be screwed.
- markbnj 12y agoAgreed, it doesn't mean those things. But I think that when we say we'll be "screwed" it doesn't necessarily mean the earth will be fundamentally different after the screwing is completed. The dinosaurs got screwed, and so did the Neanderthals, and in the end all that did was make room for us, the latest species about whom the Earth cares not at all.
- hcarvalhoalves 12y agoThat humans will impact the planet is a certainty. Like all species, it's constantly "screwing" the environment. The missing link is that, in turn, the environment "screws back". This exogenous will force humans into adaptation - only failing that comes the extinction scenario. So it's not like we have a choice. Unless the entire species subscribes to nihilism (which I doubt it's at our core, or we wouldn't be here today), we have to adapt.