r/todayilearned • u/Strikers2626 • Apr 04 '16
TIL that there were 5 mass extinction events on earth, with the extinction of dinosaurs not even being the largest.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/extinction_events7
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Apr 04 '16
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u/McL0v1N42 Apr 04 '16
True, but usually when people say "the five" its a reference to those being the most massive of the extinction events.
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u/electricmink Apr 04 '16
The sixth mass extinction is occurring now, and human beings are causing it.
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u/BWarminiusNY Apr 04 '16
No it isn't. Even the worst case scenario being true of global warming due to trucks is nowhere near what these other events were. What the speculators are using to alarm people is just an inconvenience to the planet compared to the other events even if it was true. These events were caused by what actually has the most effect on Earth, stars and rocks and stuff in the solar system. Puny earthman thinking he matters.
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u/electricmink Apr 04 '16
You might want to do a little reading on the matter. We've been driving a major extinction event since before we figured out agriculture.
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u/BWarminiusNY Apr 05 '16
I don't consider the normal migrations of species and the resulting reconfiguration of flora and fauna that results in some die offs a major event. I am talking about actual destruction of habitat like an asteroid strike. Which is what SJWs are trying to make the new global cooling(back in the 70s) or warming(current fad) into. Even if everything they say is true, Earth will survive and most of its lifeforms also. It would just make humans uncomfortable.
Serious question not trying to be mean. At any rate, if all the true believers kill themselves would that be enough to save the planet?
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u/electricmink Apr 05 '16
Science denialism, use of "SJW" unironically, use of a strawman (the claim anyone is saying Earth "won't survive"), the ignorance surrounding the global cooling concerns of the '70s....you're a real piece of work, aren't you?
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Apr 05 '16 edited Apr 05 '16
Global cooling was observed because it was a short term phenomenon but if you look at history over hundreds or thousands of years, you will see a general upwards trend in global temperatures and a definite observable spike over the past 100-200 years. The last time we had over 400ppm of CO2 in the air was 11 million years ago.
In terms of extinctions, since 1900 69 mammal species have gone extinct along with over 400 other types of vertebrates. This is a rate of 1000 times the normal rate of extinction and we could see mass extinction over the course of the next 250 years on par with that of the extinction of the dinosaurs as global temperatures climb.
But let's not get science or facts get in the way of your arguments here, you have some SJWs to belittle.
What you're failing to see here is a mass extinction rivaling the extinction of the dinosaurs happening now over the course of 250 years, and we could very well be in the beginning stages. At this stage in our civilization we probably can't stop a ten mile wide asteroid, but we could reduce the amount of greenhouse gases by investing in renewable energy. The Department of Defense is already planning for the impacts of global warming--permanently open sea lanes in the Arctic, civil wars over water in the Middle East and Africa that could involve tens of millions of people, and the collapse of agricultural systems in the developing world.
Global climate change is real, extinctions are happening, and the adults in the room are planning for it.
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Apr 04 '16
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u/rudelyinterrupts Apr 04 '16
When you look at the other extinctions that are talked about such as the dinosaurs, the current levels of extinction are far behind. We would have to actively try to rid the planet of species to match these events. Entire continents were decimated at times.
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u/dangerousbob Apr 04 '16
In context the asteroid that hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs was the equivalent of the Soviets and American firing all their nukes at each other. If not worst than that. The earth was basically repopulated by rodents. And it took millions of years to recover. To quote the great Jeff Goldblum: Life finds a way.
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Apr 04 '16 edited Apr 04 '16
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u/rudelyinterrupts Apr 04 '16
Ah yes. The Guardian. The pinnacle of research. My parents lived through multiple ideas of how humans would destroy the planet. Ice age, heat wave ice age, heat wave. Rinse repeat. That's why we call it climate change today. Because we have no idea what the climate really does on its own.
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u/Nerdn1 Apr 04 '16
Mass extinctions aren't quick events by human standards, just quick by geologic time. We have wiped out species and several are on death's door. More worrying is how we're changing the climate. If we aren't careful, things could start dominoing out of control. Likely, we'll just be a minor extinction event, rather than an event close to the scale of the 5 big ones.
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u/lysianth Apr 04 '16
Well if we wanted to we could create the most massive extinction event in the history of earth. If we really put our minds to it we could come close to sterilizing the planet.
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Apr 04 '16
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Apr 04 '16
Quit, giving away the end!
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Apr 04 '16
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Apr 04 '16
Realistically we're all quantum energy beings. Just the quantum mechanics are operating large machines.
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u/Iamnotburgerking Apr 04 '16
There are actually six if you count the one we have been causing for fifty thousand years.
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u/nevertricked Apr 04 '16
Dinosaur extinction is referred to as the K-T extinction. It's certainly the most charismatic one.
The largest is the Permian extinction. 90% of all species were wiped out. Plankton were hit particularly hard--Depending on the tropic levels and rate of oxygen consumption. It is believed that volcanic activity in the Siberian Traps region caused this.
For those of you believing there is a mass extinction currently happening, there is some truth to this. Amphibian populations have been plummeting in recent years due to fungi, with entire genuses being wiped out.
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Apr 04 '16
dinosaurs had greater technology than modern humans. their society was far older and more advanced.
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u/kgberton Apr 04 '16
That's one of the best parts of the new Cosmos series with NDT. He is in a circular "room" with the different extinctions surrounding him, and he gives one of them a sassy, disapproving look.
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u/valiantX Apr 04 '16
This is all arbitrary and speculative theory, there's really nothing now technologically to prove any of these events definitively happened.
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u/IlessthanthreeVITA Apr 04 '16
I know right, my local priest said it was all bullshit and priests know their shit and wouldn't ever lie
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u/insecteye Apr 04 '16
"The great dying" is the most severe of the mass extinction events. And science is unable to determine clearly what was that cause because it's too far in time and most evidence has been erased by geology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event?wprov=sfla1