World could face mass extinction. What do you think of this article?

Alarming indeed! And also deeply embarrassing, because of our participation in a society that so pollutes the Earth, destroys plants and animals, and superheats the atmosphere. We are not forced to participate, we are lured into complacency and spoiled by trivial distractions. Who is sitting on the steps of the capitals demanding an end to taxpayer subsidy of the oil and coal that are the cause of most of the damage?

We have the technology and the capacity to stop damaging the Creation.

24 August 2010-- The White House unveiled a new report, "The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy through Innovation," which says that because of the Recovery Act’s $100 billion in investments, the U.S. is now on track to achieve four major innovation breakthroughs, including cutting the cost of solar power in half by 2015 and doubling U.S. renewable energy generation and manufacturing capacity by 2012. Report estimates said that the cost of utility-scale solar power is expected to drop from $0.13/kWh in 2009 to $0.06/kWh in 2015, which would bring the cost of generating solar power down to the cost of electricity from the grid, according to the report. "

http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/art...

Yet, we still continue to subsidize the production of more coal, oil and natural gas, and the carbon dioxide levels continue to increase steadily. In 20 years my grandchild will ask incredulously, 'You mean that the US sent soldiers to Iraq to keep the oil flowing and not to stop it?"

Isn't your question, can we do anything to slow or halt it the extinction?

Of course we can. In the 1980s, it seemed entirely possible that the US and Soviet Union would set off a nuclear winter that would kill us all, but now nuclear weapons stocks are being reduced. Citizen activists got organized.

Have you written your government this week, demanding it stop supporting fuel that overheats the Earth and instead help the clean energy industry?

Have you met with your friends and neighbors, planning activities for 10-10-10 ? (See 350.org)

Websites that have accurate information and letters already written: http://greenpeace.org/ or http://pirg.org./ or http://nrdc.org/ or http://1sky/

http://globalchange.gov/ is the US government information site on global warming.

Lots of books out now:

Guy Dauncey's book, Climate Challenge, 101 Solutions to Global Warming has great ideas and excellent, up to date, scientific explanations. ($12 on Amazon)

Stephen Schneider Science as a Contact Sport

Lester Brown Plan 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization

Nicholas Stern The Global Deal

James Hoggan Climate Cover-Up

James Hansen Storms of my Grandchildren

Thank you for joining the rescue plan.

It makes little difference in the end. The planet has existed for about four and a half billion years. It has supported life from virtually the word "go", and an absolute profusion of life from the Cambrian explosion, about 500 million years ago, onwards.

If you represent this whole period with the span of your out-stretched arms, from the tips of your fingernails on one hand to those on the other, the period of human existence would be represented, on the same scale, by the number of cells lost to a couple of strokes of an emeryboard! A mere flash. Nothing!

During this whole time the Earth has experienced the effects of five major extinction events: the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic and Cretaceous. The real whopper, the Permian, which ushered in the age of the dinosaurs, also removed about 95% of animals from the fossil record. It was the closest the planet has ever come to total obliteration. The last, the Cretaceous, wiped out 70 - 75% of species.

According to the British Museum - who are attempting to establish a DNA record of all the species now left on the planet, even any extinct ones for which DNA still exists I believe - the Human Race itself, in sheer numbers-of-species terms, has already exceeded this last, gruesome benchmark. Making global capitalism itself in that sense, the biggest mass extinction event since whatever occurred at the KT boundary 65 million years ago. And all in less than two shakes of the emeryboard!

What all this indicates to me, is that the planet will not really suffer any ill effects at all from that which incomprehensible and virtually unchecked levels of greed have 'achieved'. Which is the main thing. So it doesn't really "matter", at that level.

The only difference is that with the current extinction we are, each of us, in control.

If we were all to simply stop behaving in the greed and consumer-driven way we do, with the resulting fall in population this would imply (and related even distribution of resources) then we stop the current mass extinction.

Like it or not, face it or don't, that's the way it is mankind.

;)

Edit: Just watched the George Carlin - perfect. I love him! Just what I am saying.

Wake up mankind. Get it while it's hot and enjoy it while you can. Coz it will not be long before the next asteroid.

-|--)

Doubtful. The main point to pull away from the HATE SPEECH is that this person (dare I call him that at the risk of offending humanity, sadly, i have no other recourse of face getting reported. The Libs only believe in free-speech when it suits their endeavors) believes that the people of the South are plain stupid. As some of the posts mentioned, the creeping few inches would concievable warrant a mass exodus, but this 'genius' of the left, clearly thinks the South is too incompentent to move. Perhaps he is basing this on those who remained in New Orleans when Katrina was coming (despite the millions of warnings)? No one has ever accused a Liberal of using rational thought in their arguments, so I fail to see why any other them would be starting now. The author of that article is a racist and a hate monger. He will not be silenced or forced off the 'air" (so to speak) as we in the Right believe in the true Freedom of Speech, and that includes the idiots on the Left. Naturally, had this been a Conservative author, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be petitioning this person's resignation. Besides, we all know that the global warming problem is actually a Republican Initiative to drown out the Democrat strong holds, like the Northeastern US, the Pacific Northwest and California. Duh!

I think the primary reason for many of the extinctions is that humans have transported many species to places where they weren't before. For example, Australia has seen dingos, foxes, cats, mice, cane toads, rabbits, etc. Many times these animals outcompete the indiginous animals. It doesn't have to do with our emissions of CO2. Often these introduced animals will introduce disease. For example, Cape hunting Dogs nearly became extinct after getting distemper. The Carolina Parakeet had the habit of coming to the aid of its hurt fellow birds and it was thus easily wiped out by hunters who didn't seem to care. Similarly Passerger pigeons and buffalo were slaughtered recklessly. Again, none of these had anything to do with climate. The article suggested climate change played a role but that is junk science and pandering to the least common denominator.

No matter what mankind does, there is not a shadow of doubt that mankind will not exist at some time in the comparatively near future.

On the time line of the history of this planet, the human race occupies an almost imperceptible space.

The Earth has existed for the last 4.5 billion years and did not need humans to get to where it is today.

Long before the planet is sucked into the vortex of the dying Sun, mankind will have perished and there is nothing we can do about it.

We are just another mammal and like the 99% of members of that species that are now extinct, so too will we.

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

This isn't new, but according to the the geologist that did the study, David is exactly wrong (as usual).

"How today's extinction crisis - species today go extinct at a rate that may range from 10 to 100 times the so-called background extinction rate - may change the face of the planet and its species goes beyond what humans can predict, the researchers say. "

and

"Of course, the ongoing extinction crisis of modern times goes far beyond the background extinction rate. Alroy noted that it could not only wipe out entire branches of evolutionary history, but may also change the ecosystems shaped by each species.

That means today's species matter for environments around the world, and so humans can't simply expect replacements from the diverse species of the future.

"If we lose all the reef builders, we may not get back the physical reefs for millions of years no matter how fast we get back all the species diversity in a simple sense," Alroy said. "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100902/sc_li...

The findings are not very comforting,.

George Carlin said it better than I ever could.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

And just to add to Jim's post, the American Chestnut has been wiped out by a fungus brought here on the Chinese Chestnut. Dutch Elm disease is wiping out American Elms. Anyone who has driven through the SE in the summer has seen vast tracts of land being consumed by kudzu. Chinese Wisteria, and honeysuckle, Mimosa and Empress Trees are all over running native species.

And don't get me started on fire ants and Japanese beetles...

"could" is too weak of a word. The world "is" facing mass extinction.

But don't worry citizens of Earth, you can always get a new Gameboy and play Pokemon with fake animals and discover a fake world! The fake animals always do as their told, never hurt you, and never die!

Its even better than the real thing

It fails to surprise. Humans were created many thousands of years ago, and humans will die just as we came. We won't be around forever, nothing will.

It's more than likely a new dominant species will reign in the distant future and will learn about maths and science and create lies such as Global Warming and Miley Cyrus.

Too bad.

Not much.

There is absolutely no evidence that extinction rates are significantly different now than they were 100, 1,000 or 5,000 years ago.

The data...

<QUOTE>Since about 1600, 486 animal species have been recorded extinct. This represents about 0.04% of all animal species so far described. In the same period, 600 plant species are known to have disappeared, about 0.25% of the total.<END QUOTE>

0.04% since 1600 is 0.01% per century... 0.001% per decade... 0.0001% per year.

0.25% since 1600 is 0.06% per century... 0.006% per decade... 0.0006% per year.

Between 1 and 6 per million per year. The pre industrial extinction rate is unknown. Estimates range from 1 to 7 per million per year.

99.99% of all extant animal species will still be here in 2110.

99.94% of all extant plant species will still be here in 2110.

Barring an asteroid impact or a major flood basalt eruption or a nuclear war... There is zero risk of a mass extinction.

The hype...

<QUOTE>These figures are much smaller than those of the Permian/ Triassic and Cretaceous/Tertiary mass extinctions. One might therefore conclude that at present life on earth is at comparatively little risk of extinction. However, there is a growing body of data to show that the converse is true.<END QUOTE>

In other words... The bear is always just out of sight in the woods.