Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here

[ScienceRocks]

Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here
Published: Friday, June 19, 2015 - 15:03 in Biology & Nature

Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here e Science News

There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence. That is the bad news at the center of a new study by a group of scientists including Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.

"[The study] shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event," Ehrlich said.

Although most well known for his positions on human population, Ehrlich has done extensive work on extinctions going back to his 1981 book, Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species. He has long tied his work on coevolution, on racial, gender and economic justice, and on nuclear winter with the issue of wildlife populations and species loss.

There is general agreement among scientists that extinction rates have reached levels unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago. However, some have challenged the theory, believing earlier estimates rested on assumptions that overestimated the crisis.

But thankfully we can now clone all these animals and bring them back! I think we should make more land national forest as animals are important!

 

[Gracie]

There certainly IS something going on, that's for sure. Will it be total extinction? I dunno. But I do know there are way too many people on this marble we call earth.

Say you have 2 acres of land and a big pond with a family of 2. Those two wind up being 4. Those four wind up being 8, and so on and so forth. Eventually, some of those people will get sick and pass it on to other people. Some will die. So they make more people. And the pond gets smaller. And smaller. And smaller until there is no water left. All the animals were killed for food and none are left on that 2 acres. That is the size of that world. 2 acres. Filled with more people being born than people dying.

Bad scenario, but you get the drift. The world is too small for such a large population. Something has to go. Water. Animals. Forests. Food. Air.

 

[ScienceRocks]

I think we should do everything in our power to reverse this. Even putting aside half of our land to preserve the animals.

We need to reduce our population to 2-3 billion. This is far worse then global warming if we're getting to have a extinction like the other 5.

 

[Steinlight]

Good.

 

[ChesBayJJ]

Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here

There is general agreement among scientists that extinction rates have reached levels unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago. However, some have challenged the theory, believing earlier estimates rested on assumptions that overestimated the crisis.

An excellent book

The Sixth Extinction An Unnatural History b y Elizabeth Kolbert - The Washington Post

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here
Published: Friday, June 19, 2015 - 15:03 in Biology & Nature

Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here e Science News

There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence. That is the bad news at the center of a new study by a group of scientists including Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.

"[The study] shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event," Ehrlich said.

Although most well known for his positions on human population, Ehrlich has done extensive work on extinctions going back to his 1981 book, Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species. He has long tied his work on coevolution, on racial, gender and economic justice, and on nuclear winter with the issue of wildlife populations and species loss.

There is general agreement among scientists that extinction rates have reached levels unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago. However, some have challenged the theory, believing earlier estimates rested on assumptions that overestimated the crisis.

But thankfully we can now clone all these animals and bring them back! I think we should make more land national forest as animals are important!

If animals already alive and going extinct, cloning them wont help. Nature selected them for extinction so they're going extinct. Whether by our fault or not, adding more of them isn't going to change their fate. Something about them isn't working that they endure and continue. Or perhaps something about them doesn't co-exist well alongside humans. So as long as we're here, they wont be. One of us has to go...

 

[G.T.]

Shut up delta, you dont know what the fuck youre talking about, as usual with your pea brained 12yr old's mind.

Humans have saved a shit ton of animals from extinction and taken them off, as a result, of the endangered species list.

Humans ARE smart enough, you know, to terraform ecosystems and defy nature.

As usual, your toddler intellect is pitiful.

 

[Crick]

Nature selected them for extinction so they're going extinct.

Don't anthropomorphize the evolutionary process. No one and no thing "selected them for extinction".

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Nature selected them for extinction so they're going extinct.

Don't anthropomorphize the evolutionary process. No one and no thing "selected them for extinction".

Wasn't, at least not literally.

 

[eagle1462010]

I think we should do everything in our power to reverse this. Even putting aside half of our land to preserve the animals.

We need to reduce our population to 2-3 billion. This is far worse then global warming if we're getting to have a extinction like the other 5.

How do you propose to do so..........................hmmmm...............

 

[Crick]

I'd suggest tax pressure and a committed PR effort.

 

[IsaacNewton]

If animals already alive and going extinct, cloning them wont help. Nature selected them for extinction so they're going extinct. Whether by our fault or not, adding more of them isn't going to change their fate. Something about them isn't working that they endure and continue. Or perhaps something about them doesn't co-exist well alongside humans. So as long as we're here, they wont be. One of us has to go...[/QUOTE]

It always amazes me that I can still be stunned by ignorance. You don't understand that a mass extinction means the entire biosphere is affected and as part of that biosphere and as dependent we are on it, whatever causes its collapse will result in billions of human deaths and possibly the extinction of the human race.