The end is near

[InfidelRiot]

Is the probability of the end occurring this year any more realistic than it would have been in August of 2011 or at the turn of the century?

 

[Pegg]

lets hope it arrives before we completely destroy ourselves and our environments. have you ever wondered, if 'mother nature' really did exist as a goddess, why she isnt doing something about the environmental damage that is occuring?

 

[Cassiopia]

lets hope it arrives before we completely destroy ourselves and our environments. have you ever wondered, if 'mother nature' really did exist as a goddess, why she isnt doing something about the environmental damage that is occuring?

Mother nature and 90% of the world's species are doing/will do fine. It is us that need to worry about our place in the world if we don't act more responsibly.

To answer the OP, it is highly unlikely the world will end for several billion years yet. The fate of humanity however is less certain.

 

[InfidelRiot]

I am actually writing a novel based on the very problem of not only the environment but.....

Okay, I am not fond of sharing this information, but I will.

The novel is religiously based. It takes place in a fictional town not far from where I grew up and it is a Christian community that has an academy where the majority of students are sent for the rehabilitation program. The main premise for the first novel, there are most likely going to be at least four, is that a serial killer terrorizes the town under the guise of being led by God. There are also supernatural events taking place in the town. It is later discovered that the Christian God does not exist and that the Goddess is reclaiming Earth. She displays her power by completely destroying an entire city on Earth and telling the people that they have one hundred years to change their ways or she will destroy them all.

 

[Pegg]

I am actually writing a novel based on the very problem of not only the environment but.....

Okay, I am not fond of sharing this information, but I will.

The novel is religiously based. It takes place in a fictional town not far from where I grew up and it is a Christian community that has an academy where the majority of students are sent for the rehabilitation program. The main premise for the first novel, there are most likely going to be at least four, is that a serial killer terrorizes the town under the guise of being led by God. There are also supernatural events taking place in the town. It is later discovered that the Christian God does not exist and that the Goddess is reclaiming Earth. She displays her power by completely destroying an entire city on Earth and telling the people that they have one hundred years to change their ways or she will destroy them all.

it sounds like a re-run of the jim jones saga

Im guessing you're own beliefs in a goddess inspired you... and perhaps a little resentment toward your previous chruchies?

 

[InfidelRiot]

Never heard of the Jim Jones Saga.

Yes, I do believe in the Goddess. I have no resentment toward previous churches I attended. I am merely an anti-theist when it comes to the Judeo-Christian God.

 

[Shuddhasattva]

Mother nature and 90% of the world's species are doing/will do fine. It is us that need to worry about our place in the world if we don't act more responsibly.

To answer the OP, it is highly unlikely the world will end for several billion years yet. The fate of humanity however is less certain.

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Species are dying off at a rate of about 50,000~ a year. This number is growing, and the growth is accelerating. We're well into a mass extinction period. Humanity is going the way of the dodo, it's true, and we're going to take 50 to 95% of the other species with us. The most worrisome thing is the state of the oceans. We're inflicting a terrible punishment on its balance, and it's acidifying at an alarming rate.

Every single ecosystem is in decline. Nothing is doing just fine, although some species are temporarily advantaged by conditions and filling niches left behind by others, it will be a cancerous growth for them that eventually implodes.

 

[Pegg]

Never heard of the Jim Jones Saga.

Yes, I do believe in the Goddess. I have no resentment toward previous churches I attended. I am merely an anti-theist when it comes to the Judeo-Christian God.

you know Jim Jones...the crazy preacher who poisoned his entire congregation with cyanide and shot a governor of one of the states and his television crew who were filming on the property where they were all living?

Can I ask what particularly about the Judeo Christian God is it that you dont like?

 

[jarofthoughts]

Is the probability of the end occurring this year any more realistic than it would have been in August of 2011 or at the turn of the century?

There have been thousands of prophets and prophecies predicting the end of the world and they all have one thing in common:

They were all wrong.

That is not to say that the world will never end.
It most assuredly will, if not before, then at the very least in a few billion years when our sun starts turning into a red giant.

Humans might go extinct long before that though (and wouldn't be humans as we know them today in any case after a couple of billion years of evolution), due to pollution, nuclear war or any number of reasons.

Life will persist though, as will the planet.
Mass extinctions have taken place many times in the past and life, ironically, is really hard to kill off.

 

[Gjallarhorn]

The more humans we shove on to this planet, the more likely it becomes we all end up starving or killing each other.

 

[Super Universe]

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Species are dying off at a rate of about 50,000~ a year. This number is growing, and the growth is accelerating. We're well into a mass extinction period. Humanity is going the way of the dodo, it's true, and we're going to take 50 to 95% of the other species with us. The most worrisome thing is the state of the oceans. We're inflicting a terrible punishment on its balance, and it's acidifying at an alarming rate.

Every single ecosystem is in decline. Nothing is doing just fine, although some species are temporarily advantaged by conditions and filling niches left behind by others, it will be a cancerous growth for them that eventually implodes.

New species are also being discovered each day.

The human population grows by 212,970 people a day, how are we going the way of the Dodo?

Change has always been the way on the earth.

 

[Thief]

Saw it in a science documentary....
This planet can support 9billion people.

When I was in eighth grade a teacher announced...3billion on the earth.
As I turned 50....6billion.....(now 7billion)

At this rate, and should I live to be 100 as did my grandfather....
I will live to see 12billion people on this earth.

Man is a creature that soils the nest.

We are not going to make it.

 

[BSM1]

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Species are

dying off at a rate of about 50,000~ a year. This number is growing, and the growth is accelerating. We're well into a mass extinction period. Humanity is going the way of the dodo, it's true, and we're going to take 50 to 95% of the other species with us. The most worrisome thing is the state of the oceans. We're inflicting a terrible punishment on its balance, and it's acidifying at an alarming rate.

Every single ecosystem is in decline. Nothing is doing just fine, although some species are temporarily advantaged by conditions and filling niches left behind by others, it will be a cancerous growth for them that eventually implodes.

Could you cite your sources for this information?

 

[Shuddhasattva]

I don't know why I'd be answering you, but...

New species are also being discovered each day.

Since when does discovery create new species? The rate of speciation, in equilibrium, is somewhat more than the "background rate of extinction" - the usual expected rate. Now we are orders of magnitude beyond the background rate as a consequence of human industrial activity.

The human population grows by 212,970 people a day, how are we going the way of the Dodo?

Cancer grows too. And then the host dies. What's your point?

Change has always been the way on the earth.

Empty platitude.

 

[Shuddhasattva]

Could you cite your sources for this information?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction#cite_ref-1S.L. Pimm, G.J. Russell, J.L. Gittleman and T.M. Brooks, The Future of Biodiversity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_(journal)Science 269: 347–350 (1995)

I used a conservative number. It could be as high as 140,000 - or higher actually, considering that it's progressed.


This is not a controversial claim.

 

[Cassiopia]

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Species are dying off at a rate of about 50,000~ a year. This number is growing, and the growth is accelerating. We're well into a mass extinction period. Humanity is going the way of the dodo, it's true, and we're going to take 50 to 95% of the other species with us. The most worrisome thing is the state of the oceans. We're inflicting a terrible punishment on its balance, and it's acidifying at an alarming rate.

To clarify what I said before. The thread is about how close the end of the world is. I was simply making the point that the Earth is likely to survive well beyond the extinction of our particular race.
I am concerned about biodiversity and the health of other species. But the truth is species come and go. While I hope that as many species as possible that are here now can survive, I am not going to get into a debate about exactly how many species are in decline or what that really means.

Every single ecosystem is in decline.

No it isn't; which your next point proves...

although some species are temporarily advantaged by conditions and filling niches left behind by others, it will be a cancerous growth for them that eventually implodes.

This is the way the history of evolution has worked; one species filling a niche left by another.

 

[Shuddhasattva]

No it isn't; which your next point proves...

This is the way the history of evolution has worked; one species filling a niche left by another.

Sorry again, but that's very ignorant. The explosive growth of a few species is not at all an indication of the health of ecosystems, in fact, the other way around. It's astonishing to me that you even said that.

Case in point: algal blooms & eutrophication. Artificial conditions, ie runoff, advantaging a few species of algae, choking everything else out. Is that ecosystem health to you?

These species that thrive in these conditions - their growth is cancerous, and deleterious to everything else, which is why their growth will eventually implode.

Truly, every single ecosystem is in decline, and there's not a credible biologist or ecologist in the world who will say otherwise.

 

[1137]

The end of humanity will come before the "end of the world". I am not sure that anything suggests it will be soon besides ignorance and wishful thinking.

 

[Cassiopia]

Sorry again, but that's very ignorant. The explosive growth of a few species is not at all an indication of the health of ecosystems, in fact, the other way around. It's astonishing to me that you even said that.

Case in point: algal blooms & eutrophication. Artificial conditions, ie runoff, advantaging a few species of algae, choking everything else out. Is that ecosystem health to you?

These species that thrive in these conditions - their growth is cancerous, and deleterious to everything else, which is why their growth will eventually implode.

Truly, every single ecosystem is in decline, and there's not a credible biologist or ecologist in the world who will say otherwise.

I don't want to get into a slagging match particularly since I suspect on the main issues of global environmental change and responsibility we would probably be in agreement.

However you should stop making sweeping assertions. There are local eco-systems in my country which are in fact doing very well. There are some that are now thriving which were once in decline, because environmentalists have managed those systems intelligently. (If we deny this, we may as well give up hope that intelligent management of the environment can be in any way productive).

And just as an aside, disagreement does not equal ignorance.

 

[Shuddhasattva]

However you should stop making sweeping assertions. There are local eco-systems in my country which are in fact doing very well.

They're in decline, period. Sorry. It's my business to know this. Every single ecosystem is experiencing the effects of a global imbalance.

There are some that are now thriving which were once in decline, because environmentalists have managed those systems intelligently. (If we deny this, we may as well give up hope that intelligent management of the environment can be in any way productive).

Some have been given cosmetic improvements. I don't know of any truly comprehensive ecosystem management program anywhere. Why? No political will.

And just as an aside, disagreement does not equal ignorance.

No, it doesn't, but disagreeing in an ignorant fashion does.