We're All Gonna Die!

I have to assume that the article is poor representation of his views. He's a Professor of palaeontology and head of the committee on biodiversity in the UK. It's also something he said at a science festival which would suggest that it was in not meant to be taken quite so literally.
As a palaeontologist, he's bound to know that one thing we can't do with the fossil record is make long-term predictions about the course of evolution. In fact, we evolved from apes which were actually decreasing in diverstiy overall when we appeared. So an argument about decreasing diversity within a group leading to extinction in the whole group is fallacious.
Also, I don't understand the link he makes between our damaging the environment and other mass extinctions. It's widely believed that mass extinctions (particularly the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 mya) was caused by cosmic events (the asteroid impact theory) and not by a gradual degradation of the environment which would have given species time to adapt. The extinction of large mammals (and there have been surprisingly few in the last couple of centuries) is down largely to us. Suggesting that nature likes to have a bit of a clear out every few million years is just daft.
I think it's sad when environmental concerns are misrepresented in this way. Any intelligent reader (including a lot of people who commented here on the shack) can see the holes in an report like that which leads to a belief that the whole issue isn't worth any concern.
Well it is. We're lucky that we live in prosperous countries and so don't suffer the consequences of environmental disasters. We are in a minority and many millions of people suffer because of over-exploitation of their local environments and (arguably) global climate change which has to some extent been caused by our own actions.

Personally I think it'll be one of those Caldara Volcanoes that'll get us...would be kinda funny actually...we're so damn sure that we're gonna either kill ourselves or that death comes from outer space...and it actually come from a mass of "magma" (puts pinky up to lips) pooling under yellow stone park in a unknown volcano that is about as big as the entire park.

Steverino... If you die and don't even call to say adios, I'll save a print of your web page and your ol' teddy bear, Pooby. Next best thing? Not! Please call yo momma ... ze clock she ticks!

I'll die someday. It's a stage of life that we'll all go through in time and hopefully it isn't now. It could be any day, any minute, any second. #53, I think you're right. Look how far technology advanced and think of the next millenium. I can't even imagine what it will be like a thousand years from now.

More proof that we're about to croak:

http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/09/12/extinct.monkey.ap/

So let me get this right. Dinosaurs interfered with their environment so much that they made themselves extinct. Did this have anything to do with fossil fuels?

This looks to me like your garden variety eco-fascist, anti-population nonsense with the obligatory new spin. Predict disaster, then when disaster does not come claim that your predictions were responsible for preventing disaster by Raising Awareness. Harvest newfound notoriety, publish another book or press release full of wild theories that have not yet been subject to peer review. (Peer review spoils all the fun.)

For example, as I recall most of the world's population was supposed to die due to a massive famine Paul Ehrlich predicted for sometime around 1975. Come 1975 most of us were just fine. Well, that was only because Ehrlich's book (which sold maybe two million copies) had had such a far reaching impact on the global population problem, to say nothing of the food supply, no?

Oh well, at least no one takes these people seriously anymore. It's kind of too bad, though, because nowadays when legitimate environmental concerns come up, a lot of people just make fun of them.

einexile

hey #81, ya know what's weird...I just download, uhm I mean procured that song (I was in one of my find any song that was used in the show Millenium kicks).

In the year 9595,
Will Man still be alive
Will Woman survive?

yada yada yada

Or there's #4 in which we found out some way to kill ourselves either through natural disaster, disease or through warfare.

Oops, that was supposed to be #73.

So long as we don't completely destroy the environment by 2030ish, we'll be able to stop, then reverse the damage done. MolecularNanotechnology (MNT) being the enabler (and potential disabler) I've got 2 and half ounces of faith that we can do it time. :)

I'm sorry, but after all this motherfucking hype, I simply can't take any more

On Dec 31st, this year, at 11:59 PM, I'm going to detonate 100 nuclear warheads in strategic locations around the world, effectively fucking up humanity real good.

Anyone who wants to live will join me in the safety of the deserts of Australia and Nevade, where we will walk around all day in leather and drive tricked out cars.

Well fuck.

These guys keep telling us we're going to die. We know we're going to die, it a friggin fact of friggin life. Everyone dies. Now be a genious and tell us WHEN we're going to die! Scientists, sheesh.

if we die, who will post comments?

Millions of years? HAH! Sure, humans on earth will be extinct, but the humans on mars and in other solar systems wont :-P

my poop is extinct.

if you print out that article, it's pretty easy to poop on it.

Sheesh...it's not like it matters.
Once this planet blows up we'll just build a new one...doesn't anyone watch tv/movies?

Duh.
-Tim

Someone get me a fucking babe! I want to feel good that day before they all get extinct...



On the other news, Blizzard has decided to screw more Diablo2 expansion according to http://desslock.gamespot.com/:

"There'll be some new art for the character classes in the
original game, but otherwise those classes are likely to be
unchanged, although the developers are considering adding some
additional skills."

So if you have a barbarian level 99, you got to start from scrath to see the new spells. Thanks god... I am only level 75... and 76 by tonight.

I wonder how much money they wasted on that study. I could have told them that myself. We're destroying this planets ecology at an astronomical rate (just an observation, not a soapbox stance). Between that, and technological "advances", we'll kill ourselves off soon enough. And it won't be a million years from now, either. I'd venture to guess closer to a few hundred.

ha this guy is so full of shit. "soon" is like 1 million years

in 1 million years we are ether going to be on lots of other planets or we killed eachother in a war. i guess a crazy disease might get us too.

but why should we be concernd that we are gone in a million years, thats to far away for a human to even think about.

did the simpsons win an emmy again?

if not which animated show did?

Who's this Steve Gibson person?

Did you hire a new news guy Maarten?

Vantage's Suggested MP3 of the Day
------------------------------------------

Stavesacre - Colt 45.mp3

If you like Tool, you should check this stuff out (I upped the whole album as well).

Great band. The cool thing is, a couple of the guys in the band are pretty hardcore gamers as well. I played one of the band members in Q2 back in the day (before he was in Stavesacre).. He totally owned my sorry butt.

Conveniently located on Ominous' Server in the "Vantage's Suggested MP3 of the Day" directory. The album is in the "album" sub directory.

"I reckon from the evidence that we have that there is reason to believe that we humans are interfering with the environment so much that we are making ourselves extinct."

WHAT? WHAT IS THIS BOLD NEW THEORY? I've never heard that one before.

... seeya, Im gonna go burn some styrofoam while wearing my black rhinohorn codpiece.

-df

article is stupid. Even we we make all other animals go extinct we would still be able to survive on plants. Now if we made all plants go extinct, well, that would take a lot of roundup.

er... #16... I suck.

Do you shit where you sleep?

They have used data from the fossil record to chart the evolution and extinction of all animals and plants that have died out during the course of the planet's history. [snip] "from the evidence that we have that there is reason to believe that we humans are interfering with the environment so much that we are making ourselves extinct."

Well duh. Isn't this common knowledge?