This might have been stated already, but there have already been 6 mass-extinction events. Very very serious for life on Earth. We are currently experiencing the seventh, an accelerated event caused mainly by mans' activities. Yep, it's happening on my watch, and there's sod-all I can do about it. Not good at all.
Next Great Extinction Around The Corner?
- Thread starter livingin360
- Start date
Well actually I like them, but then I only kept and cooked the smaller ones.
The bigger ones were catch and release.
http://www.activeangler.com/recipes/bass-baked.shtml
Arthur
They won't grow in the north - around the southern Great Lakes in the lake effect weather you can get them.chimpkin said:
But if I could, I would.
Which brings up the matter of extinctions and their recorded times: the American Chestnut is currently on life support, but if it goes under it would be hard to say when - when the last original, non-hybrid dies? When the population was reduced to scattered remnants too inbred and aged to be capable of repopulating a landscape?
Likewise the Blue Whale: expert opinions differ on whether it currently has a maintainable breeding population, or whether it's a sort of walking dead species. If it does go under, when did that happen?
Having attended a meeting of the American Chestnut Fondation recently I'm pretty sure this won't happen. The American Chestnut isn't even on the Endangered list and probably never will since the TACF is now in it's 6th generation of developing blight resistant seeds, and they are not hybrids, simply grown via use of selection and breeding of plants with natural resistance to the blight that is killing off mature trees. Indeed if you plant an American Chestnut now from just normal seed it will grow to usually over 30ft and produce plenty of nuts before it eventually succums to the blight, and you sill get plenty of good wood for firewood or furniture though.
http://www.acf.org/index.php
I guess I'm again optimistic.
While the specie was decimated by whaling, the trend again seems positive and even the Japanese and Icelanders don't hunt these anymore.
When the IWC did their last analysis of the count they came up with a very low number of ~2,500, but that has since been revised upward to at least 5 groups all across the glober and total numbers that may reach 12,000 whales, also encouraging is that the sighting rates of blue whales off California coastal waters increased from 1979/80 to 1991 (Barlow 1994). Blue whale sightings off the Farallon Islands in central California also increased dramatically from 1973 to 1994 (Pyle and Gilbert 1996). Sightings of blue whales in other areas along the California coast have also shown increases in the 1980s and 1990s (Calambokidis et al. 1989, Calambokidis and Steiger 1995).
So with all of that good news I think it is likely we stopped whaling in time to save this huge animal.
Arthur
The situation so far is that the American Chestnut is not capable of maintaining a breeding population on its own.adoucette said:
Without intervention and protection, it's already gone. If the US economy collapses and the various breeding programs fade away, the last one probably dies in a couple of hundred years - no sooner, though.
So the question is: how would that event count in the calculation of extinction rates? The extinction event we are in now seems likely to stretch over a couple of thousand years at least, if the "last individual alive" standard is employed.
Another factor: it seems possible that American Elms are evolving into a shrub species in some regions (northeastern US, say). If the big ones all die, as is possible eventually, and only these quick-reproducing and beetle-camouflaged shrub varieties are left, is that an extinction?
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Oh blabla. The point is, it IS us.
And we're going to do a thorough job of it. A volcano or a meteor is one thing, massive amounts of toxins is quite another.
Excuse me? Or those the only options?
Aestethic reasons? Youve got to be kidding me.
I agree with you. But I don't think we'll spread to other planets any time soon. And even if we do, we wouldn't leave Earth.
Hooray for the hoomans!
Is it me, or are folks being particularly dumb today? Nearly every species is interdependent on each other for survival. Each time we wipe out a species, we are one step closer to wiping out ourselves.
I hope to God we don't find another inhabited planet to occupy, destroying this one is bad enough, without destroying another one. Leave other worlds alone, they've done nothing bad enough to deserve human beings.
I hope to God we don't find another inhabited planet to occupy, destroying this one is bad enough, without destroying another one. Leave other worlds alone, they've done nothing bad enough to deserve human beings.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Well said! :worship:
Extinctions R Us.
I think Ultra has won the thread.
I keep talking about this concept to anyone who'll listen myself: I suspect (and some biologists suspect) the reason Chronic Wasting Disease-a prion disease-is propagating in the deer and elk in the Western U.S. is the elimination of wolves.
I'm pretty certain wolves are not susceptible to prions, so the wolves are going to choose to stalk the impaired animals, eat them, and prevent them from both being eaten by people or infecting other animals(like the cattle that share pasture) through feces-to-grazing contamination...
So we eliminate wolves-not only does the prey population breed out of control-as was noted earlier in the thread-we may also be making ourselves sick. Oops.
A biome is like one of those jenga game thingies...the more pieces you pull out, the wobblier it gets, until it suddenly collapses...
Note the suddenly part.
I keep talking about this concept to anyone who'll listen myself: I suspect (and some biologists suspect) the reason Chronic Wasting Disease-a prion disease-is propagating in the deer and elk in the Western U.S. is the elimination of wolves.
I'm pretty certain wolves are not susceptible to prions, so the wolves are going to choose to stalk the impaired animals, eat them, and prevent them from both being eaten by people or infecting other animals(like the cattle that share pasture) through feces-to-grazing contamination...
So we eliminate wolves-not only does the prey population breed out of control-as was noted earlier in the thread-we may also be making ourselves sick. Oops.
A biome is like one of those jenga game thingies...the more pieces you pull out, the wobblier it gets, until it suddenly collapses...
Note the suddenly part.
Yes, aesthetic reasons. What else would you call them? You value biodiversity. Of course you do this from the comfort and wealth of a rich nation, sitting at your computer with every convenience ever thought of at your fingertips.
Meanwhile, some other guy living in a third world country may value a place to live and enough food for his family more than the biodiversity that existed in the piece of rainforest he burnt down to start his farm.
With the right technological breakthru (say FTL and the discovery of an earthlike planet ready for colonization within reach of ships using FTL), people would be lining up to get off this rock.
Life without intelligence is nothing but a series of complex biochemical reactions. Those other worlds out there are like beautiful young women trapped on an island with no one around to appreciate their beauty or to help them reach their true potential.
To put it another way, with no one around to hear the tree falling, what difference does it make whether or not it makes a sound?
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Practical, prudent, spiritual, ethical, moral, and farsighted reasons.madanthony said:
And end up starving under tyranny in a wasteland of his own creating, with no resources to work with in digging out of disaster.madanthony said:
Many people have done that. The Easter Islanders' may be the most chilling account.
livingin360
Registered Senior Member
Well said I think in that is the meaning of life, What use is a universe if no one knows it even exists? Seems like the big chill is going to force that to happen anyways. People also think that the planet we would colonize is most likely going to have life on it. I imagine if their was diverse life on it the planet would be uninhabitable for us. Our only shot would be to terraform a planet and wait for it to be habitable.
"It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars, it will be a species very like us, but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses, more confident, far-seeing, capable, and prudent. For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness." (Carl Sagan)
How is it that some human groups not only managed to survive but thrive in freezing northern climates where for half the year no food grows and constant sources of fuel are required just to keep people alive?
That these people should go on to produce the most remarkable technological civilization the world has ever seen is certainly not evidence that history favors those who exist in a herd-like equilibrium with their environment.
Preservation of species - where they are not carefully monitored and controlled - is antithetical to the evolutionary process, which demands that some are killed off to make way for other, more evolved lifeforms.
Frightening to some, but maybe only to those who really have something to fear.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
(first off.. what iceaura said)
Of course, human drama and all that. I'm not saying there isn't a huge dilemma here.
Humans have as much right to have a place to live on this planet as any other organism. As much right; not more. So that doesn't make it right that we are pushing all the others out of the nest.
With all our supposedly superior intelligence we should find a way to peacefully co-exist.
In my mind there is only one way to do this (apart from moving to another planet altogether): birthrestrictions. If we get our numbers down far enough most of todays problems would seize to exist.
Believe me, even if all of that happens. Most will stay here on Earth.
And I don't think even one of those things will happen for a looong time, if ever.
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Enmos
Valued Senior Member
I don't think I like you very much.
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At Uni I studied Environmental Biology and Evolutionary Genetics which covered amongst other things, Biomes. A Biome is a self-sustaining biological system. Altering any one part of the system WILL have consequences for the entire system. http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&so...iE4fNZP5V6hkTtbXQ&sig2=VhMTc0FBXCkHuBqtWLfRbg
Humans are relative latecomers to these systems, and everywhere humans go, they have an adverse effect. More species are dying out faster now than at any time during the known history of the earth.
In short, mankinds short-sighted greed fuelled rampage of destruction is killing the very systems he needs to stay alive. This is suicide in slow-motion, and you see this as progress? As something to be applauded?
Oh, yes it's frightening enough. And all the smart people are extremely worried about it. Short termism and ignorance are the natural enemies of nature, and nature wipes out its enemies every time, without fail.
Humans are relative latecomers to these systems, and everywhere humans go, they have an adverse effect. More species are dying out faster now than at any time during the known history of the earth.
In short, mankinds short-sighted greed fuelled rampage of destruction is killing the very systems he needs to stay alive. This is suicide in slow-motion, and you see this as progress? As something to be applauded?
Oh, yes it's frightening enough. And all the smart people are extremely worried about it. Short termism and ignorance are the natural enemies of nature, and nature wipes out its enemies every time, without fail.