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dreadgeek · 01-19-2011, 03:38 PM

So, given all the concern expressed here I thought I would acquaint people with just *how* resilient life is.

Depending upon who you ask there have been five mass extinction events and there appears to be one happening now.

They are, in reverse chronological order (I'll discuss the current one separately):

K-T Extinction (aka End Cretaceous or Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction) --This is the one everyone knows about because it took down the dinosaurs. I've already touched on the specifics of the precipitating event so I won't review that here. However, the butcher's bill for that one was: 17% of existing families of animals. 50% of all genera and 75% of all species. Timeframe: 65.5 MYA.

Triassic-Jurassic extinction (aka End Triassic -- No one is quite sure why this happened although a rapid change in climate (runaway greenhouse effect) might be the cause. ~23% of all families and 48% of all genera went extinct. Timeframe: 205 MYA

Permian-Triassic extinction (aka End Permian or The Great Dying) -- This was as close as life has come to being wiped out on this planet. Again, we're not certain why but whatever it was it was huge. 57% of all families, 83% of all genera, as much as 96% of all marine species and about 70% of all land species. Timeframe: 251 MYA

Late Devonian extinction -- 19% of all families, 50% of all genera. Timeframe: 360 - 375 MYA

Ordivician-Silurian extinction -- 27% of all families and 57% of all genera. Timeframe: 440 - 450 MYA

Now, we appear to be in the middle of a sixth great extinction which is doing a lot of damage to the mammals. We are the cause of it. But I want folks to put this in perspective. We are not going to wipe life out on this planet. We could, at our worst, do it a VERY nasty blow but I doubt we could wipe it out. What we are doing now is not going to wipe out life on this planet.

What's more, extinctions--while not good things aren't bad things either. If it weren't for the K-T extinction you and I would not be here. Before that event, mammals were tiny shrew-like animals that were tasty for some of the smaller raptor-like dinosaurs. When they went away, mammals flourished. If we managed to wipe ourselves out then some OTHER species would, in the fullness of time, become dominant. It might even become dominant for the same reasons we did--in other words because they evolved high intelligence. (My bet would be on the cephalopods since they are already VERY smart)

The point I'm driving at here is that perhaps we should all take a few deep breaths. Are there reasons for concern? Yes. Are there reasons for fear? Probably not. Are there reasons to believe that nature is having some revenge or aliens are causing mischief? None what-so-ever. I'm not arguing for license to eat, drink, make merry and pollute because that would be foolish. I AM arguing that life is far more resilient than most people give it credit for and that life has seen FAR worse than anything we Homo sapiens have been able to come up with yet.

Cheers
Aj

01-19-2011, 03:38 PM	#12
dreadgeek Power Femme How Do You Identify?: Cinnamon spiced, caramel colored, power-femme Preferred Pronoun?: She Relationship Status: Married to a wonderful horse girl Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Lat: 45.60 Lon: -122.60 Posts: 1,733 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,132 Thanked 6,841 Times in 1,493 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	Mass Extinctions past and present So, given all the concern expressed here I thought I would acquaint people with just how resilient life is. Depending upon who you ask there have been five mass extinction events and there appears to be one happening now. They are, in reverse chronological order (I'll discuss the current one separately): K-T Extinction (aka End Cretaceous or Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction) --This is the one everyone knows about because it took down the dinosaurs. I've already touched on the specifics of the precipitating event so I won't review that here. However, the butcher's bill for that one was: 17% of existing families of animals. 50% of all genera and 75% of all species. Timeframe: 65.5 MYA. Triassic-Jurassic extinction (aka End Triassic -- No one is quite sure why this happened although a rapid change in climate (runaway greenhouse effect) might be the cause. ~23% of all families and 48% of all genera went extinct. Timeframe: 205 MYA Permian-Triassic extinction (aka End Permian or The Great Dying) -- This was as close as life has come to being wiped out on this planet. Again, we're not certain why but whatever it was it was huge. 57% of all families, 83% of all genera, as much as 96% of all marine species and about 70% of all land species. Timeframe: 251 MYA Late Devonian extinction -- 19% of all families, 50% of all genera. Timeframe: 360 - 375 MYA Ordivician-Silurian extinction -- 27% of all families and 57% of all genera. Timeframe: 440 - 450 MYA Now, we appear to be in the middle of a sixth great extinction which is doing a lot of damage to the mammals. We are the cause of it. But I want folks to put this in perspective. We are not going to wipe life out on this planet. We could, at our worst, do it a VERY nasty blow but I doubt we could wipe it out. What we are doing now is not going to wipe out life on this planet. What's more, extinctions--while not good things aren't bad things either. If it weren't for the K-T extinction you and I would not be here. Before that event, mammals were tiny shrew-like animals that were tasty for some of the smaller raptor-like dinosaurs. When they went away, mammals flourished. If we managed to wipe ourselves out then some OTHER species would, in the fullness of time, become dominant. It might even become dominant for the same reasons we did--in other words because they evolved high intelligence. (My bet would be on the cephalopods since they are already VERY smart) The point I'm driving at here is that perhaps we should all take a few deep breaths. Are there reasons for concern? Yes. Are there reasons for fear? Probably not. Are there reasons to believe that nature is having some revenge or aliens are causing mischief? None what-so-ever. I'm not arguing for license to eat, drink, make merry and pollute because that would be foolish. I AM arguing that life is far more resilient than most people give it credit for and that life has seen FAR worse than anything we Homo sapiens have been able to come up with yet. Cheers Aj __________________ Proud member of the reality-based community. "People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people. As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up." (Terry Pratchett)