Will Humans Become Extinct Soon (death, Canada, economy, money)

[LittleDolphin]

Do you think the human species is headed for extinction?

An increasing number of scientists believe our species will be close to extinction as soon as 100 years from now. They base this extinction prediction on the acidification of our oceans, increasing droughts, floods, hurricanes/typhoons, death of our forests, extinction of as many as 40% or more of other species...and the likelihood of pandemics mowing us down.

One recent book on this topic is The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. She's not the only scientist to hold this viewpoint and prediction.

Their viewpoint is that we've impacted our Earth's systems (land, air, oceans) to the point that even drastically cleaning up our act is now too late.

What do you think?

Is the clock ticking on our extinction?

[Unsettomati]

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

Do you think the human species is headed for extinction?

An increasing number of scientists believe our species will be close to extinction as soon as 100 years from now. They base this extinction prediction on the acidification of our oceans, increasing droughts, floods, hurricanes/typhoons, death of our forests, extinction of as many as 40% or more of other species...and the likelihood of pandemics mowing us down.

One recent book on this topic is The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. She's not the only scientist to hold this viewpoint and prediction.

Their viewpoint is that we've impacted our Earth's systems (land, air, oceans) to the point that even drastically cleaning up our act is now too late.

What do you think?

Is the clock ticking on our extinction?

No.

A Malthusian catastrophe might certainly result in a massive population crash, but consider - even the death of 99.99% of all humans would leave 700,000 people on Earth, a very viable population spread across numerous ecosystems on six continents, with an immediate relative resource abundance. Large states would cease to exist, much technology would be lost through the collapse of the interconnected global economy, but that's a far cry from extinction.

Kolbert's book is about a mass extinction event, and she's hardly the first to propose that we're in the midst of (a human-caused) one now; the idea is decades old.
Quaternary extinction event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

None of the threats you cite are threats to the extant human species. Rather, they are threats to civilizations. Short of an impact substantially larger than that of the K-T event, it's hard to imagine a threat to the human species as a whole. Even a full-scale toss of thousands of nukes, with a nuclear winter as bad as the early estimates (which have been thrown into considerable doubt by subsequent research), there would be a lot of dead immediately, eco-chaos and significantly-elevated cancer rates, but no human extinction. The oceans going bad? Bad for civilization, but not a threat to extinction. Floods and droughts and hurricanes? Very localized events. Pandemics? Infectious species don't eliminate global species. They simply don't evolve that way. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense to eliminate your host species - the parasite then goes extinct for lack of a host. Then there's the entire problem of infecting everyone on Earth - how does that happen? The answer is that it simply does not. The planet is full of isolated people - those on remote islands, a few uncontacted peoples, and so forth.

Super-adapters are very hard to eliminate. A massive population with the ability to live in almost any environment on Earth, not to mention the ability to perceive existential threats, all but guarantees many pockets of surviving tribes if not primitive states.

Indeed, this is what Malthus predicted, not extinction.
Malthusian catastrophe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[LittleDolphin]

Really enjoyed your thoughtful and well-reasoned reply. What you stated makes sense--there is hope that our species will survive--even if in pocket and in greatly reduced numbers. I share your viewpoint, but lately, the predictions seem more dire..I long for a brighter outlook.

My eco-thriller, Falling Thorough Time, takes place in 2084 (100 years after 1984) and is in a scenario very much as you've touched on--a small pocket of survivors in a remote area of Northern California: review: Falling Through Time Review

[Magnatomicflux]

Death of our forests?

Canada seems to be doing alright lol



That's 1.4 BILLION acres right there. It would cover 25% of the United States, including Alaska.



Actually, things are looking alright world wide.






We're going to be fine.

[Cape Cod Todd]

I don't think extinction of the human race will happen unless we experience an event like a huge asteroid impacting the earth and changing the climate. I do see our civilization falling apart. If you look around the planet there are still tribes and cultures that haven't changed much in thousands of years. They live off the land. Most people rely on something or someone else for survival so if the earth was hit with a man made or natural calamity most people would be better off dieing quickly.
I do think there will come a time when the earth has had enough of this virus plague called humanity and there will be a reset.

[Lancet71]

I think extinction is far off but growing a second head or third eye might be feasible.

[MynameisnotPeter]

I don't think humans will ever go extinct unless a huge asteroid hit the planet like with the dinosaurs.

[themaster]

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

Do you think the human species is headed for extinction?

Yes, it's automatic and natural..

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

Will humans become extinct soon..

Umm.. no not really.. but there is another way of looking at it.. a evolution is going on in our bodies.. new things are happening.. so yah.. what was a human of 1900.. will not be the human of 2100.. they will be very different in body and more so vibration/consciousness...

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

Do you think the human species is headed for extinction?

An increasing number of scientists believe our species will be close to extinction as soon as 100 years from now.

Ohh, awesome..

Were those the same scientists that said that "newtowian psychics answered everything there is to the universe"

Yah, know before they tested that theory against Einstein and found it wrong?

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

An increasing number of scientists believe our species will be close to extinction as soon as 100 years from now.

Here try this statement again..

an increasing number of scientists consulted astronomical data and weather data.. they agree with chicken little the sky is falling

Originally Posted by LittleDolphin

They base this extinction prediction on the acidification of our oceans, increasing droughts, floods, hurricanes/typhoons, death of our forests, extinction of as many as 40% or more of other species...and the likelihood of pandemics mowing us down.

One recent book on this topic is The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. She's not the only scientist to hold this viewpoint and prediction.

umm some scientists once thought 'the earth was flat'.. your right.. I'm gonna start building my bomb shelter now.. I knew having nukes parked in cuba was a mistake

And also what did Elizabeth say in this book.. did she tell you specifically to invest heavily in 'Acme' bomb shelters??

Bet she didn't say any of that.. just calm, rational data analysis and predictions.. but not alarmist is it?

[texdav]

Bet its the same ones who want funding so they can save us. Follow the money.

[ohio_peasant]

I wish to ask an alternative question: what's so bad, or so regrettable, about humans going extinct?