What is Digg?97 Comments
- Ducksa, on 05/16/2008, -5/+29"Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year"
*****, kind of scary in the long run - senorsubagua, on 05/16/2008, -3/+26i think the planet could do without about 80% of the commenters in here this morning, too. despicable.
- masgaster, on 05/16/2008, -4/+23Well, on the bright side, if we only wipe out 1% of the world's species each year then every year there will always be 99% of the world's species remaining.
- inajeep, on 05/16/2008, -0/+11That line of thought in incredibly narrow minded and incorrect.
- Zomar, on 05/16/2008, -1/+12Fact: world wildlife is rapidly going excinct and dying out.
Fact: humans are the primary cause of this.
How is this fearmongering? This article is true.
Species come and go, but since humans have expanded throughout the world the majority of larger species that have shared environments with man have been killed by man. Seriously at this rate the only sizable animals that are going to be around in the future are the ones we've enslaved for our own pleasure. There practically is no wildlife anymore, except for the remotest of places. A human's most common interaction these days with animals are the tortured and diseased ones he eats each meal. Are we really just going to rape this earth and the beings we share it with until there is nothing left but what exists soley for our benefit? - BDOUG, on 05/16/2008, -1/+12There is no need for panic. This is a self-correcting problem if you simply take the long view. Humans will eventually breed/consume/war themselves into extinction and other critters will take over. The loss of these animal species is tragic but inevitable. Almost any animal species will naturally die off with or WITHOUT humans here. Humanity accelerates this problem but also accelerates our own demise, eventually ending that particular environmental pressure. Guilt and political initiatives are useful in smaller contexts, but not in one this overwhelmingly large . There are too many people who simply do not care, and never will. There's no changing that, and thinking you can with web articles, t-shirt slogans, songs, etc, is just another predictable irrational fallacy.
- ChildhoodRage, on 05/16/2008, -8/+18The root cause is the same as global warming, war, and famine. Our planet is overpopulated, pure and simple. The solution is to curb birth rates in third world countries, by improving their literacy rates.
Look it up! - DeFex, on 05/16/2008, -2/+12Keep driving those SUVs, Keep breeding uncontrollably. keep throwing plastic and chemicals all over the place.
- TritonX, on 05/16/2008, -2/+12And they think global warming is bad, wait until the ecosystems falls apart.
- culbeda, on 05/16/2008, -0/+8So we're always APPROACHING zero percent, rather than reaching it. Well I feel better now.
- akkibaba, on 05/16/2008, -2/+10"American children grow up to be valuable citizens. Bangladeshi children grow up to be part of the world population problem. Fretting about overpopulation, is a perfect guilt-free - indeed, sanctimonious - way for "progressives" to be racists."
- P. J. O'Rourke - Venom339, on 05/16/2008, -10/+17A great teacher of mine once told me he believed that eventually humans would be one of the few hundred species of animals left on earth, and the most of the others would be the ones we commonly used, like sheep, cows, chickens, etc.
That we would survive just about any climate change (he was a strong believer of global warming) yet the rest of the animal species would face the impact. We as humans like to think of them as animals, when we are merely an evolved branch of them.
We are animals, and we believe as a whole, we're overly greedy, and egoistic. We don't have this right to do such a harm to these animals.
Of course he told me this wouldn't be for hundreds of years, but I don't think it will be that far in the distance.
Hmm, this is a spurred comment from lack of sleep but something I've wanted to say for awhile. - 3tcp, on 05/16/2008, -0/+7Hmmm, sounds like someone was a bit confused by the 'birds and bees' conversation...
- yubpro, on 05/16/2008, -1/+8Folks, just give us one more century. Stop destroying, or at least slow it down, this is YOUR responsibility. Give us 100 years and imagine where we'll be, what we'll discover, the miracle drugs and treatments we can extract from a world that has everything that we need and more. We've only discovered 1% of the plants in the rain forests, just think about that other 99%, the cures and ingenuity of nature that lay undiscovered.
- monoa, on 05/16/2008, -0/+7...and a large part of it is due to anthropogenic climate change, which is why the idiots who deny this reality are contributing to the ongoing natural disaster.
On the bright side, once we've fried the planet, killed off 99% of the current species, including ourselves, it'll only take a few hundred million years for the cockroaches and rats to evolve in to a new ecosystem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on ... - ambrosious, on 05/16/2008, -0/+7I know you're kidding, but for anyone who is unclear, what they mean is 1% of the current amount...
- manstein01, on 05/16/2008, -10/+16Holy crap these comments are awful.
- inactive, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6...uh...except for that whole "biospere" thing...uhhh...now where is my bible
- mfc5200, on 05/16/2008, -2/+8If your parents had more than 2 kids. Go bitch at them. If you are planning on having more than two kids, you are a hypocrite.
- Zomar, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6I don't know what statistically is the "greatest threat," but expansion of residency is certainly up there. But it's not just that, it's the mindset that it's okay to use whatever means necessary environmentally to meet our wants. Just think of how much of the world's forests have been cut down to be turned into inefficient cattle prairies and consumer establishments. How many mountains have been blown up to get the coal underneath to power our ever growing "need" for energy. How so many of the world's fish populations have been eradicated by overfishing. The list goes on and on.
Corporations are build around extracting as much money from the consumer as possible. Next to profit, the environment means nothing. This is the nature of capitalism. Of course the consumer doesn't need to purchase most of what the corporations are selling, and are also a contributor of the problem.
The government seems to be okay with corporations exploitation of our environment, and that's largely because the people themselves are complacent with the issue. - DeFex, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6Subdivisions are the way they are is because "teh evil corporations" bought up and destroyed most US public transit infrastructure. and brainwashed everyone in to thinking they need a car.
- DestroyFascism, on 05/16/2008, -2/+8We are next, it only takes the wrong 1 to screw it all...
- FredFredrickson, on 05/16/2008, -1/+7And this is why, when I read news articles about people having their 14th child, I just shake my head and thank goodness I won't be alive long enough to see the results of our mindless consumption of the earth's resources.
- HarryBauzonia, on 05/16/2008, -4/+9I know most of you want to blame governments and (teh evil) corporations for this, but cities and subdivisions are the greatest threat to wildlife.
- highwebl, on 05/16/2008, -0/+5If you are planning on having more than two kids, adopt.
- curtisag, on 05/16/2008, -1/+6What we really need is an emergency project on a scale even larger than the Manhattan Project to develop a clean and renewable source of power. I think that source will eventually be fusion energy. If we can just figure out the technical problems behind the technology, we would have enough power to save ourselves and the planet. But it's now a race against time for the human race to continue to exist. Either we develop the technology to sustain our way of life, or we will all die in the final war for the little natural resources that are left. Perhaps this is why we don't detect any extra-terrestrial signals from outer space. A species must revert back to a non-technological state or go extinct once all natural resources are gone.
- kahakauai, on 05/16/2008, -0/+5If a quarter of animal life has been destroyed - and we are killing off an estimated 1% per year... That means we have 75 years until all life on earth is extinguished?
Pretty morbid concept being as how I will probably live to see it... - MrWhite7, on 05/16/2008, -1/+5If you make potatoes extinct SO HELP ME GOD....
- ambrosious, on 05/16/2008, -1/+5We are currently in one of the highest rates of extinction in the history of the earth, and there is no debate that humans are the primary cause. 1% per year is the current (instantaneous) rate of change using the current total population for reference.
- jimchou, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3There's a huge difference, though, between destruction of a species (or a few species) and destruction of an ecosystem.
Have you ever seen an overcrowded aquarium? Eventually the fish die. We're the fish in the aquarium of Earth. - leftyslament, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3"The ascent of man"? Humans have been the most powerful species on earth for the better part of the last 400 centuries. I think we've - you know what? No. I'm not gonna argue with you. You have to be trolling. Every time you post a comment, I'm amazed at what an incredible douche bag you are. No one can be that big of an *****. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and go get laid.
- XZanatos, on 05/17/2008, -0/+3Everyone also eventually dies of old age, it doesn't mean its alright to go around shooting everyone for fun.
- Coffeedemon, on 05/16/2008, -3/+6What do you expect ... school is almost done for the year right?
- sodade, on 05/16/2008, -3/+6People who believe this ***** scare the ***** out of me.
- purplehaze420, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3Damnit, forgot the word hope, let's HOPE....
- Gerz1219, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3Species which are mostly confined to zoos will have a serious problem repopulating at any point in the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founder_effect
For example, the Amish have existed in a small isolated community for hundreds of years, and almost entirely marry within the community, which means that the present Amish are nearly all descended from the same four founders.
This means they have an unusually high rate of Ellis-van Creveld Syndrome, an otherwise rare genetic disorder which causes the afflicted to grow extra fingers and toes. It also causes serious health risks.
Once a species is endangered, it becomes very difficult for it to repopulate healthily without major genetic complications. We won't be able to just clone animals back from near-extinction, because a significant amount of the species' genetic diversity will have necessarily been extinguished.
Domesticated animals are ***** if anything ever happens to us. Your poodle will be eaten in short order. - monoa, on 05/16/2008, -4/+7We can kill them so we might as well? It's people like you who make me wish for a human pandemic.
- mogebier, on 05/16/2008, -2/+5When the animals evolve an opposable thumb we humans are DOOMED!!!
- Zomar, on 05/16/2008, -7/+9Wrong.
People in third world countries have nothing to do with global warming.
Global warming was caused by and is the responsibility of the global North. The United States, the European Union, Russia, China, India. These countries are at fault for basically all of the global world problems, and undeniably at fault for climate change.
One global northerner is equivalent on an environmental scale to dozens if not hundreds of "third world" humans. The root cause of climate change and war is not "overpopulation," if we all lived like third world countries live, there would be no global climate change.
The root cause of climate change is primarily greed fueled by capitalism. Since the birth of the modern industrial age, Northern countries have exploited the world's resources, people, and locals for the purpose of maximizing profits. All the while the citizen has been convinced by the corporations of the would that their personal value as a human being is a direct correlation to what they "own" and that in order to be happy we need to buy their product. The north is living beyond the Earth's means and the big corporations will continue to rape the earth as long as the people keep buying. - purplehaze420, on 05/16/2008, -7/+9OM NOM NOM NOM
- BaudiIROCZ, on 05/16/2008, -2/+4holy headdesk batman.
- monoa, on 05/16/2008, -1/+3Christ? You mean the fictional zombie who started off one of the desert death cults?
What does he have to do with the reality of species extinction? - MrWhite7, on 05/16/2008, -2/+4Really? Climate change doesn't occur naturally?
- yubpro, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Following that logic, why cure anybody who gets sick? Sorry if I'm too much of an optimist, but just because it may cause certain social problems is no reason not to look for improvement. Given a commitment to technological improvement, within the next century or two we could foreseeable master decay of the human body and at the same time find technologies that allow us to much more efficiently use the space we have here on earth, and beyond...
Yes there are problems that will need to be overcome, but there are solutions. It's a question of whether or not society is willing to work together to find them. - purplehaze420, on 05/16/2008, -2/+4Let's just the ascent of "men" like you doesn't take precedence.
- Zemenar, on 05/16/2008, -1/+3I lol'd.
- MWeather, on 05/17/2008, -0/+1Species don't become un-extinct. Throughout history's mass-extinctions, biodiversity has decreased.
- MrWhite7, on 05/16/2008, -2/+3Wait... you want more time to find miracle drugs. You realize that will only increase the population... right?
- andreegal, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Buried as propaganda.
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