I just learned this ideas a couple days ago:
There are about 5 mass extinctions in Earth's history according to fossil record. According to the pattern, it seems like we are due for one.
My Bio teacher told me that the extinctions already began, but not directly apply to human becaues human are the one who caused it. We are destorying rain forests, every week, there are 40+ spieces becoming extinct. We don't have a chance to study those spieces before they become extinct, therefore, we might destory the cure to cancer and other 'uncurable' dieseases. We going to end up making ourself extinct.
Do you agree?
the sad thing is we may never know what we destroyed and are destroying on a regualr basis...but on the flip side, perhaps we've destroyed things unwittingly that could have been very bad for mankind as well
Don't mind the pattern, some things happen in cycles, some things just freak occurences. Mass extincion better not be a cycle.
mass extinction creates a revolution in the evolution, from wich new species can occur and develop rapidly.
That is a popular idea that I've heard several times before. Certainly humans are destroying a lot of spieies, but as far as human are concerned, I don't think that we will go completelly extinct unless something really bad happens (meteor etc.). Our population size is way too high at the moment and at the rate it's increasing it will reach earth's carrying capacity rather soon if not already. It's fairly simple, humans will start running out of food and other supplies and they will be forced to reduce their numbers from where, once everything stabilizes, it will go back up. It's like a pred-pray model, except our predator is Earth itself.
the reason for this mass extinction, as you all are refering to it, is because of over population. humans are the smartest/ most intelligent beings on earth, so therefore we are able to push all beings aside to surive. because there are so many people, natural forests and what-have-you are being cut down to accomodate our over population. we use too much to survive and there is no more natural selection. if this trend continues, it will most likely just be us and we'll have to start killing each other to surive.
Agent Smith said it the best:
I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species that I realized you aren't actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. And the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we...are the cure.
How many speices of animals are dying or being extinct in a month? I've always been wondering.
yea yea eventually we will become extinct, thats a given, the real question is when.. i believe that it will be in the far... FAaaaarr future, like tomorrow or 9999999999 years from now
most of us will define the 'end of the world' as when humans go extinct. keep in mind that the world will likely go on without us crazy monkies... likely be better off without us. extinctions will continue. mass extinctions require something cataclysmic... and as the very first post alluded to... there have been 5 known mass extinctions on this very rock. What does that mean? not everything died!!!! YAY! ok ok we may die but... AGAIN, NOT EVERYTHING DIED! fear not; just hide under a rock.
I think Volcanoes are the main cause why some animals go extinct.
During a volcanic eruption, the ashes will be spewed into the atmosphere. These ashes contains sulphur compounds which then reacts with water in the atmoshpere to produce sulphuric acid. This reaction can cause dramatic decline in the ozone layer. Within weeks the ozone hole can be as large as Australia. (Ozone=O3, Water=H2O, Sulphur Dioxide=SO2) (Sulphuric Acid=H2SO4)
With a massive volcanic eruption, it is possible that the sulphur gases produce will be enough to dissolve all ozone layer. Everyone on Earth will be bombarded by lethal ultra violet rays which can literally fry everything.
It will be awful if there is a Solar flare event and massive CME's (coronal mass ejection) happening at the same time. It can literally excite the Oxygen and Nitrogen gases to cause them to gain enough energy to escape Earth. In this event, what you see as a blue sky, you will see it as a dark sky on daylight. All living things will literally suffocate to death due to lack of oxygen. Carbon Dioxide will be the dominant gas.
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| Our population size is way too high at the moment and at the rate it's increasing it will reach earth's carrying capacity rather soon if not already. |
The population size is for the moment too high, we should lower our prosperity if we want that the Earth can 'host' us all. Else we're making it for a big disaster (I am learning about this now in geography, around in 2050 there will be a turnabout in economics, there will not be enough food (because of pollution), people will start dying, because the lack of resources the economy will collapse...) | Gieter wrote: |
| The population size is for the moment too high, we should lower our prosperity if we want that the Earth can 'host' us all. Else we're making it for a big disaster (I am learning about this now in geography, around in 2050 there will be a turnabout in economics, there will not be enough food (because of pollution), people will start dying, because the lack of resources the economy will collapse...) |
Another problem that will arise is, violence. In every given area, if the number of people reaches the maximum threshold, the attitude of people tend to get bitchy (sorry for the word) rather easily, due to the cramped space.
It is a weird phenomenon actually. In a lab test, several mice, male and female, were alowed to populate a small area in a transparent cube cage for several months. It is observed that, after some time when the population reaches it's critical level, some mice exhibit a "hostile" attitude towards their neighbor. Give a few more minutes, things can get a little awry, then the brawling starts. Some mice gangs up and forms a group to attack the other rival group. It's very interesting to watch actually.
Things can get really bad if you were to cut the supply of food drastically.
Killings can ensue to grab for food. Some mice tends to sit one corner and starve to death. Some mice are very aggresive, especially those stronger ones.
Anyway, as far as this experiment goes, we can see what uncontrolled population growth on Earth can do and the dwinling amount of food available.
We will see many deaths, however, vegetations, livestocks and etc. will have enough time to recuperate and multiply again as the human population goes down overtime.
So, basically, you see a cycle here. But, no mass extinction is possible.
But, only by a natural disaster.Those mass exsictions are usally caused by something hitting the eartch, and we are due for one. but if we found it ahead of time we could nunge it away.
