06-25-2006, 06:05 PM
Hi,
And if we do kill ourselves off, so what?
"The story of a briefly abundant hairless primate originating in Africa is but a footnote in the history of life, but in the history of the hairless primate it is central." -- Matt Ridley in Genome
We may care, but neither the Earth nor the Universe gives a good damn. And if animals can reason, they (or the few that survive) will probably have the worlds biggest party when humanity finally croaks. In the larger scheme, we (humanity) are insignificant. If we fail, then all that has happened is that it has been shown that above a certain point intelligence is not of much survival value. If we kill ourselves off in a few million years, we just prove that a bunch of dumb reptiles were better equipped (they just needed meteor defenses) to survive than we are.
--Pete
Quote:I'm pretty sure the Earth will heal itself.I'm not. The Earth has a large but limited ability to heal itself. Past that point, it needs help, either by reducing the rate of damage or by increasing the amount of damage *we* repair for it. I don't trust the second option much, given the history of both civilizations and political consistency. And the only pretty sure way of accomplishing the first is to reduce the world population to a reasonable point, say 1 to 10% of the present population (pre 1800's numbers). This, like global warming, does not need a panic approach -- working these things out over a few generations (say starting a hundred year program in the next decade) would probably be sufficient to avoid the 'runaway' effect.
And if we do kill ourselves off, so what?
"The story of a briefly abundant hairless primate originating in Africa is but a footnote in the history of life, but in the history of the hairless primate it is central." -- Matt Ridley in Genome
We may care, but neither the Earth nor the Universe gives a good damn. And if animals can reason, they (or the few that survive) will probably have the worlds biggest party when humanity finally croaks. In the larger scheme, we (humanity) are insignificant. If we fail, then all that has happened is that it has been shown that above a certain point intelligence is not of much survival value. If we kill ourselves off in a few million years, we just prove that a bunch of dumb reptiles were better equipped (they just needed meteor defenses) to survive than we are.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?