Who are these 3000 females? Are there any of them around currently? The Weasel in the White House would like to know so he could put them on his sexally suggestive Christmas card list. /s
Too bad Stephen Jay Gould isn’t alive to comment on this specific situation. There are, however several book collections of his essays available. I have six of them, mostly taken from his column in “Natural History Magazine.” Chapter 16 in EVER SINCE DARWIN is “The Great Dying.” It took place at the end of the Permian period, about 225 million years ago. It’s victims were mainly marine creatures, and the continents were in a greatly different configuration than they are today.
Several mass extinctions that we know of have taken place in the last 600 million years. The late Cretaceous extinction, which cleared the earth of its dominant terrestrial animals, the dinosaurs and their kin, took place about 65 (Gould writes 70 in this essay) million years ago.
Those two extinctions took place under different specific circumstances, but actually were due to drastic changes in environment and climate. No doubt other extinctions were due to those factors, too.
Now humans are one factor, our activities perhaps the major factor. Maybe the results of our activities aren’t as violent and dramatic as in the past — except as indicated on spreadsheets showing a multitude of species extinctions. And gradual worldwide average temperature increases. And ocean rise and acidification. And changes in wet and dry areas where large human populations live. And other things, that taken together spell big problems over the coming decades. Perhaps not total extinction for humans, but a big change in the extent of human civilization.
I can’t understand how “deniers” can be such louts. Nature doesn’t mete out justice in human terms, but if she did, deniers and those who carry their genetics would be the first humans wiped from the Earth.
Most of them are not Deniers; They just do not want any environmental regulations or laws which will cost them some money to obey. They know what’s going on, but they figure they will be gone before the climatic extremes take hold. Greed rules that day. Their own kids? That’s THEIR problem.
The event hankmorgan refers to was probably a large volcanic event. That was not an extinction level event. The largest volcanic events we know of generally only cause a major disruption over a few years, and then it is back to business as usual. It was “the year without a summer” not “the century without summers.”
When two such events happen within a few years, you can get prolonged effects as happened in the decade of the 530AD.
The difference in time scale between those isolated volcanic events and the present situation is that CO2 levels will remain high for centuries, not a few years. Such a time scale means that the occasional and short-lived changes to patterns of atmospheric and oceanic flows will become long-term changes, affecting all aspects of life. Places like the SouthEast US may find themselves constantly dealing with floods they have never seen before, with wetlands expanding far beyond what they were in early colonial America. From the point of view of humanity, change will persist over lifetimes, not a few years.
Time scales matter. The increase in CO2 from just 1959 until now exceeds the increases from previous ice age lows (when ice was at maximum, near enough, and temperatures lowest) to interglacial peak values. The shortest such natural time was more than 7000 years. We’ve done the same increase in a mere 60 years. We have no way to undo that in the short term, so we can expect centuries of changed climate.
BTW, as I have repeatedly stressed, planting trees is not likely to work. Because they won’t be allowed to compete with farm plantings. They’ll be planted in regions with low water supplies, so they won’t grow fast (see the Chinese planting in a desert). You want coast redwoods, not Bristlecone pines.
We will see sea level rises and climate changes that displace millions of people. Such displacements are the breeding ground for disease and disorder not in just a few locations, but around the world, from pole to pole.
claudio645 over 4 years ago
He’s missing about a 100 lbs…both in his head (’cause rocks weigh a lot) and his torso.
Masterskrain Premium Member over 4 years ago
Yup, that’s the Republican Party in a nutshell… led by a nutball!
• Thomas over 4 years ago
Okay, boomers.
kentmarx36 over 4 years ago
Who are these 3000 females? Are there any of them around currently? The Weasel in the White House would like to know so he could put them on his sexally suggestive Christmas card list. /s
PraiseofFolly over 4 years ago
Too bad Stephen Jay Gould isn’t alive to comment on this specific situation. There are, however several book collections of his essays available. I have six of them, mostly taken from his column in “Natural History Magazine.” Chapter 16 in EVER SINCE DARWIN is “The Great Dying.” It took place at the end of the Permian period, about 225 million years ago. It’s victims were mainly marine creatures, and the continents were in a greatly different configuration than they are today.
Several mass extinctions that we know of have taken place in the last 600 million years. The late Cretaceous extinction, which cleared the earth of its dominant terrestrial animals, the dinosaurs and their kin, took place about 65 (Gould writes 70 in this essay) million years ago.
Those two extinctions took place under different specific circumstances, but actually were due to drastic changes in environment and climate. No doubt other extinctions were due to those factors, too.
Now humans are one factor, our activities perhaps the major factor. Maybe the results of our activities aren’t as violent and dramatic as in the past — except as indicated on spreadsheets showing a multitude of species extinctions. And gradual worldwide average temperature increases. And ocean rise and acidification. And changes in wet and dry areas where large human populations live. And other things, that taken together spell big problems over the coming decades. Perhaps not total extinction for humans, but a big change in the extent of human civilization.
I can’t understand how “deniers” can be such louts. Nature doesn’t mete out justice in human terms, but if she did, deniers and those who carry their genetics would be the first humans wiped from the Earth.
moosemin over 4 years ago
Most of them are not Deniers; They just do not want any environmental regulations or laws which will cost them some money to obey. They know what’s going on, but they figure they will be gone before the climatic extremes take hold. Greed rules that day. Their own kids? That’s THEIR problem.
Baslim the Beggar Premium Member over 4 years ago
The event hankmorgan refers to was probably a large volcanic event. That was not an extinction level event. The largest volcanic events we know of generally only cause a major disruption over a few years, and then it is back to business as usual. It was “the year without a summer” not “the century without summers.”
When two such events happen within a few years, you can get prolonged effects as happened in the decade of the 530AD.
The difference in time scale between those isolated volcanic events and the present situation is that CO2 levels will remain high for centuries, not a few years. Such a time scale means that the occasional and short-lived changes to patterns of atmospheric and oceanic flows will become long-term changes, affecting all aspects of life. Places like the SouthEast US may find themselves constantly dealing with floods they have never seen before, with wetlands expanding far beyond what they were in early colonial America. From the point of view of humanity, change will persist over lifetimes, not a few years.
Time scales matter. The increase in CO2 from just 1959 until now exceeds the increases from previous ice age lows (when ice was at maximum, near enough, and temperatures lowest) to interglacial peak values. The shortest such natural time was more than 7000 years. We’ve done the same increase in a mere 60 years. We have no way to undo that in the short term, so we can expect centuries of changed climate.
BTW, as I have repeatedly stressed, planting trees is not likely to work. Because they won’t be allowed to compete with farm plantings. They’ll be planted in regions with low water supplies, so they won’t grow fast (see the Chinese planting in a desert). You want coast redwoods, not Bristlecone pines.
We will see sea level rises and climate changes that displace millions of people. Such displacements are the breeding ground for disease and disorder not in just a few locations, but around the world, from pole to pole.
pamela welch Premium Member over 4 years ago
What a great ’toon!
Herb L 1954 over 4 years ago
Dump Drumpf,and Moscow Mitch in 2020 ;)
William Bednar Premium Member over 4 years ago
Drowning in their own ignorance.