Preventing the Sixth Mass Extinction Requires Dealing With Climate Change

[ellenrr]

Allowing the climate change we're now causing to continue would virtually guarantee that human beings will be the first species in the planet's history bring on a mass extinction of life on Earth.

Mass extinction means that at least three out every four species you are familiar with die out. Forever. Extinction of that magnitude has happened only five times in the past 540 million years, most recently 66 million years ago, when the last big dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid strike.

Today, even without human-caused climate change thrown into the mix, most scientists agree that we -- Homo sapiens -- have been pushing the world towards the sixth mass extinction from such long-recognized human pressures as habitat destruction (for instance from deforestation or pollution), poaching, and overfishing. The magnitude of those pressures is overwhelming when you start to think on the global scale. We've completely plowed, paved, or otherwise transformed 50 percent of Earth's lands, taking all those places out of play for the species that used to live there. With 7 billion of us (and more added every day) on the planet, the human race now takes more than a third of all the energy produced by plant photosynthesis -- so-called net primary productivity -- just to support itself. That means a third less energy is available to sustain life for all the other species on the planet.

Avoiding such dire scenarios requires a multi-pronged effort to address all known extinction drivers -- including protecting remaining habitats, halting poaching, cleaning up pollution, slowing and stabilizing human population growth, and ascribing economic value to biodiversity in general and to keeping species like elephants and tigers alive rather than selling their bodies for parts.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-d-barnosky/preventing-the-sixth-mass_b_6161284.html

[Kennah]

1. Choices are very simple

Either humans deal with the climate, or the climate will deal with the humans.

I think full on extinction of humans is not going to happen, but 3-5 billion humans dying off in the process is very likely.

[MoonRiver]

2. We're not smart enough to deal with it.

We only think in 24 hour segments.

[RiverLover]

9. LOL

Bingo!

[RiverLover]

3. This is what needs to be in the headlines EVERY day

Nothing else can come close to being as important as saving life on earth. It pretty much dwarfs any other issue...and yet its largely pushed to the side.

Profits before people & planet rolls along...destroying but looking the other way.

Thanks for posting this, ellenrr. It needs to get out there as often as possible.

[ellenrr]

4. yes..and you may have heard

that NPR is scaling back (or eliminating, I forget which) its science and environmental news.


they said it's not newsworthy!

[RiverLover]

10. Grrrr

NPR!

I used to love them so. I guess they didn't get enough from us regular listeners. I wonder if Koch & Halliburton give $$ to them now?

As someone here likes to say, we are doomed.

[spanone]

5. ain't gonna happen in america. money making rules all business decisions.

we'll go to extinction with wads of cash in our hands......

[ellenrr]

6. there is a saying by climate guy, Guy McPherson, "If you think the economy is more important

than the environment, try holding your breath while you count your money."

[spanone]

7. excellent.

[Initech]

8. Republicans have been brainwashed by the Koch Bros and are in denial.