The most successful species that thrived on this earth were dinosaurs, who succeeded in one form or another for 150 million years. We can measure the mass extinction events, but not all the other smaller events that pushed this species forward. I grew up with the theory that a meteor was responsible, a decade ago it became a comet coupled with a super volcano that wiped them out. No paleontologist has been able to answer why they were so big, especially in a higher CO2 environment than now.
People who claim that homo sapiens is the worst and most destructive species to have ever lived are incorrect. We are simply the product of this planet. Survivors of a food chain based evolution. To our knowledge the only species that transformed various environments to our needs. We are neither alphas nor apex predators.
And on a much smaller scale animals have done the same. Elephants in the wild migrate great distances, because they overgraze their local habitats. Lions who fight and win their new pride of females, habitually kill the cubs of predecessors and rivals.
They don't have a choice. We do.
Climate change has always existed. This is a somewhat hostile planet. But unless there is a natural disaster, these changes usually took thousands of years. The anthropocene has seen a significant climate change in just two hundred years. Nature will adapt because it always has. But humans cannot, because we need a Goldilocks zone to exist and cannot inhabit much without technology. That's where our focus needs to be.
Just a brief reminder to please not mention any government individuals by name.
*claps* (especially at that two sentence paragraph and very short sentence: "We do.")
ReplyDelete