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The Earth appears to be in the middle of a mass extinction

We Never Know

No Slack
There are 2.9 billion (yes, that's billion with a B) fewer birds on the North American continent today than there were 50 years ago.

In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers report that hundreds of North American bird populations - from songbirds like meadowlarks to backyard favorites like sparrows - are thinning. Overall, the analysis suggests, we've seen a 29% decline.

"We expected to see continuing declines of threatened species. But for the first time, the results also showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds," Kenneth Rosenberg, the lead author of the study, said in a press release.

Rosenberg, a scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy, told Business Insider that entire bird species aren't going extinct yet, but the animals' total population numbers are taking a hard hit.

"We make the analogy to the passenger pigeon - once one of the most numerous birds on the planet," he said of his team's paper. "No one thought that bird could go extinct, but it did. It provides a poignant reminder that even abundant species can go extinct rapidly."

The bird losses described in the study are part of a larger trend: The Earth appears to be in the middle of a mass extinction - the sixth time in history that animal and plant species are disappearing in enormous numbers. A recent report from the United Nations found that between 500,000 and 1 million plant and animals species face imminent extinction.

Rosenberg said the new findings are "absolutely part of the sixth mass extinction trend."

Read more at...
https://amp-businessinsider-com.cdn...isappeared-across-us-canada-since-1970-2019-9
 

Ouroboros

Coincidentia oppositorum
And insects are disappearing as well.

On the other hand, new species are evolving. Toxic plants seem to be increasing, and diseases.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Not surprising. There are almost no insects left for them to eat, either.:oops:
Ticks are doing well, though.

Food sized fish, coral, shellfish -- fugetaboudit; jellyfish -- thriving
 

We Never Know

No Slack
And insects are disappearing as well.

On the other hand, new species are evolving. Toxic plants seem to be increasing, and diseases.

It's in the link...

"Michael Parr, a co-author of the study and the president of the American Bird Conservancy, told Business Insider that the overall bird loss represents a biodiversity crisis on par with the "insect apocalypse." According to a study published in February, 40% of the world's insect species are in decline."
 

We Never Know

No Slack
Not surprising. There are almost no insects left for them to eat, either.:oops:
Ticks are doing well, though.

Food sized fish, coral, shellfish -- fugetaboudit; jellyfish -- thriving

From the link..

"Michael Parr, a co-author of the study and the president of the American Bird Conservancy, told Business Insider that the overall bird loss represents a biodiversity crisis on par with the "insect apocalypse." According to a study published in February, 40% of the world's insect species are in decline."
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Yes, there has been a mass extinction going on for the past 10,000 years. if you went back then, you would have seen giant sloths, mastodons, and mammoths in North America. They are all extinct now. The pace has been accelerating a bit in the last couple hundred years, partly because of human pressures (and, truthfully, the jury is still out on whether the extinction of megafauna in North America was a human event).

Still nothing to compare to the extinction event at the end of the Permian where 98% of ocean species went extinct.
 
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Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
I have not seen any squirrels around here since last year. I've been wondering where the squirrels have gone.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Yes, there has been a mass extinction going on for the past 10,000 years. if you went back then, you would have seen giant sloths, mastodons, and mammoths in North America. They are all extinct now. The pace has been accelerating a bit in the last couple hundred years, partly because of human pressures (and, truthfully, the jury is still out on whether the extinction of megafauna in North America was a human event).

Still nothing to compare to the extinction event at the end of the Permian where 98% of ocean species went extinct.
The problem is that recovery from mass extinctions, as in recovering
lost diversity, is that it's agonizingly slow, ie, longer than human history
(tens of millions of years). So we're more & more making the planet
rather permanently less interesting.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
The problem is that recovery from mass extinctions, as in recovering
lost diversity, is that it's agonizingly slow, ie, longer than human history
(tens of millions of years). So we're more & more making the planet
rather permanently less interesting.

Yes, much longer than human history, but much faster than we might think. The recovery from the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was just a few million years. And it lead to a LOT of very interesting species.

So, you are right. We are making the Earth a lot less interesting *for us*. But once we manage to kill ourselves off, the Earth will recover quickly---in geological time.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Yes, much longer than human history, but much faster than we might think. The recovery from the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was just a few million years. And it lead to a LOT of very interesting species.

So, you are right. We are making the Earth a lot less interesting *for us*. But once we manage to kill ourselves off, the Earth will recover quickly---in geological time.
I know you are joking, but there are many who really do believe
that a warmer Earth will destroy the planet, & kill us all off.
So to the others....
Don't worry. There'll still be humans to pave over & pollute things.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Perhaps a few....
I can think of a lot of catastrophic scenarios.
I can imagine such things too, eg, meteor strike.
But a warmer planet....that's just a matter of coping with population
shifts, loss of dry land, tropical diseases moving north, etc.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I can imagine such things too, eg, meteor strike.
But a warmer planet....that's just a matter of coping with population
shifts, loss of dry land, tropical diseases moving north, etc.
Four to six billion climate refugees. Atomic wars. Mass starvation. Vast, uninhabitable regions. Oceans reduced to sludge. Atmospheric oxygen depletion...
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Four to six billion climate refugees. Atomic wars. Mass starvation. Vast, uninhabitable regions. Oceans reduced to sludge. Atmospheric oxygen depletion...
Nuclear war is a risk largely independent of GW.
Oceans turning to "sludge"....piffle!
Life killing oxygen depletion due to GW....that requires some justification.
Mass starvation has always been with us, with socialism as the primary
cause....best to avoid that when facing economic & environmental upheaval.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Nuclear war is a risk largely independent of GW.
A middle east drought was the initial impetus for the events leading to the Arab Spring, which subsequently led to a series of wars and political upheavals, which sent waves of refugees into Europe, precipitating a nativist, anti-immigrant backlash and rise of right wing political groups. Right wing groups tend to be bellicose.
Most people live near water. GW melts icecaps and snowmass, raising sea level and generating a thousand soggy climate refugees for every middle East drought/war refugee. The resulting destabilization could easily precipitate war, just as it did in the middle east, and if a nation has nukes...
Oceans turning to "sludge"....piffle!
Mass Extinctions And 'Rise Of Slime' Predicted For Oceans
Life killing oxygen depletion due to GW....that requires some justification.
Oxygen's reactive, it doesn't hang around in the atmosphere long. It must be continually renewed -- by oceanic phytoplankton and terrestrial flora. As we heat and acidify oceans with CO2 we damage this ecosystem, which is already under pressure from pollution and overfishing.
Mass starvation has always been with us, with socialism as the primary
cause....best to avoid that when facing economic & environmental upheaval.
Isn't a goal of socialism to care for everyone, "to each according to his need..." and so on? It's not socialism that's responsible for the wave of homelessness that's sweeping the country, but free-market capitalism.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
A middle east drought was the initial impetus for the events leading to the Arab Spring, which subsequently led to a series of wars and political upheavals, which sent waves of refugees into Europe, precipitating a nativist, anti-immigrant backlash and rise of right wing political groups. Right wing groups tend to be bellicose.
And yet, with a warming climate we've less death than prior to 1950.
Your anecdote loses to my anecdote.
Most people live near water. GW melts icecaps and snowmass, raising sea level and generating a thousand soggy climate refugees for every middle East drought/war refugee. The resulting destabilization could easily precipitate war, just as it did in the middle east, and if a nation has nukes...
That is one risk I've already mentioned.
But it won't destroy the planet or end human life as some of the crazies claim.
Mass Extinctions And 'Rise Of Slime' Predicted For Oceans
Oxygen's reactive, it doesn't hang around in the atmosphere long. It must be continually renewed -- by oceanic phytoplankton and terrestrial flora. As we heat and acidify oceans with CO2 we damage this ecosystem, which is already under pressure from pollution and overfishing.
Over-fishing & loss of plant life are primarily due to over-population....not blameable on GW.
Acidification won't decimate all sea life...just the ones with shells.

Isn't a goal of socialism to care for everyone, "to each according to his need..." and so on? It's not socialism that's responsible for the wave of homelessness that's sweeping the country, but free-market capitalism.
Under socialism, the homeless would just die.
 
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