To ask if you realise we are going through a sixth mass extinction of species?

[amandacarnet]

There have been five mass extinctions of life before. The most famous of which wiped out the dinosaurs. With the rate of extinction of species it is clear we are currently going through a sixth mass extinction. This is caused by climate change and human wrecking of animal habitats. And it will if not halted, lead to the extinction of humans.
It is not going to happen over night, this is not a made for TV disaster movie. But as we ruin more animal habitats and climate change gets worse, we will make living environments for humans worse. In Avery short space of time we have seen decreasing world wide fertility thought to be caused by plastics, much more frequent occurrences of dangerous weather, rising sea levels that are reclaiming land from humans, and decreasing levels of animals that are needed for human survival such as bees.

What's the answer?

What are the timescales we're looking at here?

I mean, should I not bother looking at secondary schools for my preschoolers? Should I not bother looking at primary schools??

The answer is serious efforts to tackle climate change. Individually and governments. It is why extinction rebellion are undertaking civil disobedience.
We are talking hundreds of years. But without serious effort to change things, it will happen.

But isn’t that just the natural cycle of things- especially as it has happened 5 times before ( to our knowledge anyway).

And, when you look at the history of the human race, we haven’t been very kind to our planet ( especially since the industrial revolution), and the earth will be better off without us.

Make no mistake, the Earth will do just fine without us polluting everything, and within a few hundred years of us going extinct there will only be a few signs that we ever existed.

Get rid of us and the earth will recover and continue.

This is the first mass extinction caused by an animal, us. Of course to th,e planet it does not really matter. But pretty shit for the parents of kids at or near the end. Their suffering will be immense. Also shit for other species suffering because of us.

We have several natural culling mechanisms. Ice ages, floods, volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, climate change/food shortage, disease, our own instinct to self-regulate our population through war.

One of these will take care of the problem if our own effects on the environment don't, never fear.

well Im not going to be a silly middle class protester sitting in London getting in other peoples way OP!

ffs

But dinosaurs didn't go extinct they evolved.

So if your children were dying because of climate change, would you not be angry that other mums in the past had dismissed this as natural and of no big deal?

I am sure the Earth will recover from the 6th mass extinction - a world without humans.

I almost welcome that but I am selfish enough to not want death by millions either. The attitude of 'meh' and thr preservation of thr status quo in the face of evidence and facts will surely deal our fate.

Think of the children, you mothers.

Vampirate, they went extinct. Lots of branches were wiped out. Yes reptiles and birds had evolved. But most dinosaur branches were wiped out for ever.

Out of interest, what were the other four mass extinctions?

Justarandom, is that such a weird thing to say? Personally I don't understand the indifference.

It's because there are just too many people, and the poorest places populations are still exploding. They're not going to preserve the land for wild life when they have so many mouths to feed.

I don't think the non-Western world cares about the environment.

That being said our governments are useless. They raise taxes 'to help the environment' but actually implement any laws to help, such as banning palm oil....

I am sure the Earth will recover from the 6th mass extinction - a world without humans

I don't think humans will die out - we are an extremely adaptable species - we can survive in a wide range of climates and environments and on a wide range of diets.

But don't implement any laws it should say

We will definitely be having civil war or instability because of middle class political activists who know best for everyone else long before the oceans die. I think my children are probably more in danger from that in the near future sadly

cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/big-five-extinctions

Yes I do realise. I was talking about this the other day. All the signs are there that the sixth extinction is approaching - many species becoming extinct, geographical shifts etc.

oh OP you were there last week wern`t you. bored?

I don`t need you to tell/ preach to me. The world will carry on without us....as it has done before.

Go and eat some posh grass, drinking some deconstructed posh latte!

I agree with you OP: that it is not the number one political priority and that world leaders seem incapable of working together to address it is astounding.