Humans are living Earth to sure extinction

[dArKeR]

By Alexander Chancellor
THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
Thursday, Apr 01, 2004,Page 9

Jeremy Thomas, leader of an environmental study

There is one species that resolutely refuses to decline, and that is us. Numerous species of birds, plants and butterflies are dwindling towards extinction, but we humans go on from strength to strength.

According to one expert, the world may be approaching "its sixth major extinction event." But this one will be different from the others. Whereas the previous five such events (starting 439 million years ago, when a quarter of all marine species were wiped out, and continuing at multimillion-year intervals until the elimination of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago) were caused by cosmic or geological cataclysms, this new disaster will be entirely man-made.

"You could say that this latest one is an organic event," said Jeremy Thomas, the leader of an environmental study that exposed the current crisis.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/04/01/2003116251

[OneBlueSky]

1. try as we might, we can't kill Mother Earth . . .

oh, we may make ourselves and lots of other species extinct . . . but the Earth will go on, cultivating new life forms and returning herself to balance despite the damage done . . . may take a few million years, but she's in no hurry . . . in fact, she should feel mighty comfortable without humankind around to gum up her systems . . . so don't worry about her . . . she'll be around long after we're gone and forgotten . . .

[AbsolutMauser]

2. Agreed

We would have a mighty difficult time destroying the massive hunk of matter we presently live on. The question is not so much, how will we kill the Earth, but how will we kill ourselves. Although global warming is suspect (IMHO), we are quite on our way towards giving ourselves cancer and other diseases by living under the stacks of coal power plants and sucking in the fumes from automobiles.

~AbM

[hedgetrimmer]

3. Maybe.

With the overwhelming impact mankind has upon his/her ecosystem from ozone depletion, deforestation, dead seas etc. life on planet Earth mat cease to exist and end up a desolate hunk of universe debris and an incredible archaeological site.

[Oggy]

4. Nah

Life is just to diverse. Even if it has to start from micro organisms living on sea bed vents, there will be something. And Ants.

I just added Ants because I can not get rid of the colony that raids our Kitchen every night.

[hedgetrimmer]

5. Yeah, them ants are pretty stealthy.

Most of what I was directing my train of thought at was Mars... and crossing it with the direction of this ecosystem. Well it's all speculation and I'd rather speculate upon the possibility of life, even micro organisms living on sea bed vents. Thank you.

[Boomer]

6. Life persists...

...even under the most unhospitable conditions, so I agree that there is no danger of ever creating a sterile Earth.

We'll kill off many of the mammals, bird and fish species of today, but insects will continue to thrive. And eventually, after Humans and their toxic wastes have been flushed from the ecosystem, some little rodent or other hardy beast will begin to flourish and serve as the base stock for a new wave of speciation.

The worst possible fate for the Earth is if any humans survive the coming holocausts of global warming and the return of the ice age. If so, we'll just see this whole damn cycle played out all over again in a few millenia.

--Boomer