About 250M years ago, 90% of species on Earth died during the Permian extinction. All of that loss created a lot of vacant niches to fill.
And not long after, the first mammals, our ancestors, appeared.
I find it comforting to remember that life on this pale blue dot will be resilient - whether we’re part of it or not. #science #nature #history #SharedPlanet
This entry was edited (2 years ago)
Matei Matthias Covrigus 🥨
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •We’re almost certain to be the first indigenous species on this planet to ever become aware of its turbulent history & our evolution, & also the first to understand how fragile our own actions have made our future.
And yet still too stupid to act on that knowledge, despite our endless hubris.
Very sad.
Vincent 🌻🇪🇺 en 🌹☘️
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •PirateRo
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Blippy the Wonder Slug (MOVED)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I believe we're already in an "extinction event."
I imagine that in another 100 million years or so, whoever is the intelligent species at the top of the chain will probably refer to the current time as an "extinction event," too. We've lost a significant number of species over the last few centuries that will "disappear" in the future fossil record.
We'll probably be on that list, as well.
ISH3000
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •also, the frightening realisation that we, too, could be wiped out in a flash!
#EarthReset
#FactoryDefault
#FileErrorCorruption
#Reboot
Essjay 🏳️🌈
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •"You can drive out nature with a pitchfork
But it always comes roaring back again"
Tom Waits - Misery is the River of the World
Nature will always prevail, with or without the human race.
PJT North
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Steve Boland (he/him)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •McDyer
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •JMD
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •mattmaison
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Avatar Of Prometheus
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •"The planet isn't going anywhere. WE are! We're going away. Pack your shit, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam ... The planet'll be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we're gone," --George Carlin
youtu.be/t-FN_jkF9qI
George Carlin and the earth situation (sub ITA)
YouTubeAlbert Cardona
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Quite the early eulogy for humanity. Best to tread the tight rope of #GlobalWarming reporting:
“want to scare people enough to take the problem seriously but not so much as to make them feel hopeless [while] they want to reassure people that a climate-secure future is possible but only enough to avoid complacency.”
#ClimateChange #Extinction
correspondent.afp.com/watching…
Watching the world burn
Correspondentnachshon_r
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Boomer
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •My camera shoots fascists
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Patricklee
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •nadin brzezinski
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Lee
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I really can't wait for the human extinction to happen. Let mother nature retake the little planet and repurpose it!
RichardOntario
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •fritzcokid
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •two of my favorite sayings:
entropy rules
que sera sera
life finds a way despite human interference.
flutterfli007
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Travis Southard
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •“There was life before; there will be life after”
Kevin Russell
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •If you like rock. Life on earth is a tower of impossible height each part of the tower balnced delicately on the portion below, while maintaining stzbility to the parts above.
The Asteroid was a MUCH SMALLER problem than Venusification of earth.
Life is a million interactions interconnected to support the possibility of the complexity.
No evidence in all our years of searching for life, anywhere, becauae it is infinitly fragile.
Earth could EASILY become Venus. 500 degrees.
LVN2DRM
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Stegasaurus
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •raerae
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •AmeriCanuck
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •The dramatic climate changes that we have introduced are not recoverable. The previous extinction events were environmentally recoverable.
A model of overall warming trends continuing is Venus. How much life exists on Venus?
ricardo vacapinta
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •ricardo vacapinta
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Aswath Rao
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Douglas Phillips Books
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Cooki Lumsden
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Ayatollah Lovebody
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Loop
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Simon Brooke
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I hope you're right. Life has survived past crises; but then, if it hadn't, we wouldn't be here to reflect on the fact.
There's no guarantee it will survive the crisis we're causing now.
Edward Barrow
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •CausesEffects
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Sheril Kirshenbaum
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •The wide range of responses to this post are quite something. Lots of different expectations about what’s to come on Earth.
I’ve been working on science & policy related to climate challenges in & out of academia for decades. For what it’s worth, I’m firmly on team hope. blogs.scientificamerican.com/o…
We can address #climatechange. Many individuals, organizations & nations already are. There’s still time. Not much.
No, Climate Change Will Not End the World in 12 Years
Scientific American Blog NetworkBluedotmo
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •James M.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Preston MacDougall
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •⬆️
The late, great #NobelPrize -winning chemist #GeorgeOlah was the Captain of ‘Team Hope’! We need more young chemists to follow in his footsteps!
“Chemical Eye 👁️ on Carbonated Air: From ‘Oh, Oh!’ to ‘O-la-lah’!” ⬇️
sitnews.us/MacDougall/042209_m…
SitNews - Chemical Eye on Carbonated Air: From "Oh, Oh!" to "O-la-lah!" by PRESTON MACDOUGALL
www.sitnews.usPJT North
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Meg
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Jeff Shaffer CBET, ret
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Debby Ryan
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •CherylBlueWave
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I'm on Team Hope with a dash of being realistic.
I am hopeful enough of us can make necessary changes to save plants and animal life on Earth.
I'm realistic due to the damage we've already done -the plants and animals extinct in the last 100 - 200 years - and how many more will become extinct before enough change has been made.
llewelly
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I am reminded very much of Dana Nuccitelli's essay on the 5 stages of denial. Nearly 10 years ago.
"Stage 5 global warming denial involves arguing that it's too late to solve the problem, so we shouldn't bother trying"
web.archive.org/web/2013113004…
The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report | Dana Nuccitelli
the GuardianBellis Coldwine
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •stoicmike
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Jeanclaudejunior🏳️🌈🇺🇦🇮🇪🇨🇭
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •jaxroam
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Hope and #dismay
#Doomers are just doing denialism in disguise.
Brittle Anxious Nonlinear Inco
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •tolortslubor
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Marcio André Norcio
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •tom4okstate
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •drdrbrockman
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Dom
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •the dark ages lasted 900 years. The real question should be that when a society falls how long does it take for the next wave of society to return to a similar equal or better level of survivability? When the society falls the great loss of knowledge and any cohesion which may have existed sets us back.
In millions of years the fight will be in amongst the planets. Someone else will have no doubt won that fight before us. We struggle to plan long term.
Cecillus
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Anne Camozzi
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Nanu
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •@mwl
Steve Peterson
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I've felt this strange comfort, too, that life (as a strategy) is very resilient, even if organisms and species aren't.
My lament is that there are a whole lot of creatures that had the misfortune of living during the Anthropocene and had no choice about their fate.
excog
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •💥
@Sheril
Wonder what sort of life might / could evolve if earth's atmosphere had been radically changed and surface temp
much higher than supports life now. Sulphur bacteria round deep sea geysers?
To think most vertebrates and invertebrates would go down with us, caused by our behaviour.
Of course we will probably survive long enough to witness many of our immediate fellow species no longer there. The day we realise there is no bird song will be a sombre one.
Sudhir
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Sudhir
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Shield Maiden
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Rupert 🇪🇺🏴☠️😾🔭📷🍺🍪🌍🔥
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Zeke 🇨🇦
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Wolfgang Feist
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •To be honest: I don't find that very comforting.
So far, we don't know a thing about evolution of consciousness. It may very well be, that the human species is the only one (in the universe?) "tool of the cosmos to understand itself". (Carl Sagan)
I don't agree that it doesn't matter whether "we're part of it or not".
Sane Thinker
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •