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Biological Annihilation Is Underway
#45671 07/12/17 07:57 AM
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grelber Offline OP
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Biological Annihilation Era Is Underway, Experts Warn

Full PNAS article available: Biological annihilation via the sixth on...es and declines

And the solution is ...
Ehrlich says, "reduce the scale of the human enterprise".
grelber says, "end the human experiment".
Potato. Potahto.

Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
grelber #45672 07/12/17 09:01 AM
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How distressing.

I found this bit of information particularly interesting:

"Conservatively, scientists estimate that 200 species have gone extinct in the past 100 years; the “normal” extinction rate over the past two million years has been that two species go extinct every 100 years because of evolutionary and other factors."

100 years....almost perfectly coincident with the invention of the automobile and our voyage down the road of ever-increasing fossil fuel consumption.

Last edited by ryck; 07/12/17 09:02 AM.

ryck

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Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
ryck #45674 07/12/17 10:04 AM
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Considering the impact of humans (many scientists now call our point in time the Anhropocene period), our species should be listed as endangered. We have succeeded in making too many people, who chase too many finite resources, who produce too much waste that cannot be neutralized by the environment. Add to the mix that greed, both governmental and private, prevents politicos from doing anything about it.

Too many of us forget (or never knew) that our understanding of the mechanisms that support life is limited, at best. Any attempts at reverse engineering our planet would be pure experiment. We don't know how to do it. We live on a spaceship that depends upon interactions of organisms to sustain life for all.

I am sure that life will survive us. After all, there have been mass extinctions in the past and life has rebounded. It just won't include us.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
grelber #45684 07/13/17 12:32 PM
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I like short panels that sum things up perfectly...

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aZMvjyV_700b.jpg


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
Virtual1 #45686 07/13/17 12:45 PM
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That's too good. shocked


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
Virtual1 #45687 07/13/17 01:44 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Indeed. That "Gaia Gotcha" is dead on! tongue

Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
grelber #45689 07/13/17 05:24 PM
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what I really love is how she says it with such a warm smile on her face...


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
Virtual1 #45690 07/13/17 08:01 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
what I really love is how she says it with such a warm smile on her face...

But isn't that exactly what loving mothers do ... no matter how imbecilic the behavior of their offspring?

Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
grelber #45691 07/13/17 08:29 PM
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Remember that commercial? "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
jchuzi #45692 07/13/17 08:59 PM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
Any attempts at reverse engineering our planet would be pure experiment.

Reverse engineering the planet is one thing. However, it seems that, even when honest efforts are made simply to reverse engineer our behaviour, the efforts can be negatively affected by our other mistakes. I think about the significant thrust to get automobiles changed from internal combustion to electric.

The irony is that more than 40% of the electricity needed to charge the new vehicles will be coming from coal-fired plants.

Last edited by ryck; 07/13/17 09:01 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

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Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
ryck #45694 07/13/17 09:29 PM
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Originally Posted By: ryck
The irony is that more than 40% of the electricity needed to charge the new vehicles will be coming from coal-fired plants.

Of course you are assuming a chemical battery energy source for electric cars. A more practical, albeit longer term solution would be hydrogen fuel cells rather than batteries. BMW, Mercedes, and I believe it is Toyota are experimenting with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in California and elsewhere and the Germans are running a full cell powered high speed train I regular service. — Of course that still leaves the question of the power required to obtain the pure hydrogen and compress it. crazy


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
jchuzi #45696 07/14/17 01:26 PM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
I am sure that life will survive us. After all, there have been mass extinctions in the past and life has rebounded. It just won't include us.

And it may be a microscopic animal, called a tardigrade (Water Bear), who gets to turn out the lights.

Last edited by ryck; 07/14/17 01:27 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
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Re: Biological Annihilation Is Underway
ryck #45697 07/14/17 02:37 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: ryck
And it may be a microscopic animal, called a tardigrade (Water Bear), who gets to turn out the lights.

True dat.


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