We're wiping them all out

[Marts]

We are the sixth mass extinction.

It's much more disturbing when you see it in black & white.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3667300.stm

 

[troy]

It is bad news, but not half as bad as the fact that in wiping them out, we are bringing about our own extinction.

When thinking on this subject, I often remember certain Sci-Fi series/films that concentrated on a planet whose people chose to die at a certain age. In this human rights era, that is unthinkable - but in another 200 years or so! when theres five times more people, no fossil fuels and not enough plant life to replenish oxygen? and then there was NONE.

In solving these problem, drastic solutions are going to have to be made (unless another planet is found) and it ain't gonna be pretty, but what does this mere mortal know about what is being devised to solve these problems as we speak, i.e low sperm counts.....

 

[Marts]

When thinking on this subject, I often remember certain Sci-Fi series/films that concentrated on a planet whose people chose to die at a certain age. .

Logan's run. Used to love that....

 

[bambodoggy]

Things have been dying out since the world began, at the same time people are finding new species...it happens, deal with it!

If this is the "sixth mass extinction", as the article says we weren't even here for the last five, so in my opinion the sixth would have happened with or without us.

I'm no advocate of mindless destruction, very far from it in fact but beating ourselves up over this isn't going to help. Bushcraft, if we live it as well as just doing it can help...but only help, the world will do what it's doing whether we want it to or not....I would have thought the events of Boxing Day last year would have reminded us all of that but now that the media hype is over we've forgotten how insignificant we are again and think we run everything...WE DON'T....and therefore, we aren't to blame for everything either.

Sure, there are too many people in the world, health care is too good and modern farming methods suck but are you going to tell Mrs Smith that little Johnny has to die because that's what nature intends? I don't think so!!!
Are you going to make all the Veggy's in the world eat meat because there isn't enough room to grow all their veg? again I don't think so!

Don't be upset and sad by articles like this, they are written simply to shock and make you buy the magazine or paper.... do you think the BBC really gives a hoot about this while they are worried about the impendnig strike....doubt it

Forget all this nonsence and go out and enjoy the world for real....then maybe you'll be doing your bit to help without even knowing it

Thanks for listening,

Bam.

 

[Biddlesby]

As Bam said, nothing stays as it is. Species will die out (Dinosaurs....), as will we. The planet will recover, new species will appear, ice ages will pass, stars recycle, blah, blah, blerg.

Then again - we humans seem to be very good at destroying ourselves - and everything else for that matter. I don't think finding a new planet is a viable option - we are adapted to this one. For example, a planet with different gravity would affect our growth, perhaps leading to health problems. I personally don't trust our ability to construct artificial representations of nature - look where it's got us so far - so I doubt creating little ecosystems (like the Eden Project) on another planet would work.

I'm not saying we shouldn't bother protecting/correcting the earth, just that ultimately I don't think we will be able to affect it in the long-long-long-term.

Hey - that's life. Most of these stories are horrendously dramatised anyway - tons of predictions of the future years ago of terrible disasters have turned out to be completely wrong. Nuclear weapons destroying the whole earth dreamed up around the 60's, for example (not yet anyway ). And this grey goo nonsense - computers that break down this much wouldn't have a hope of 'taking over' the world.

Sorry for my rambling .

 

[innocent bystander]

There was a story bandied around at work (oil company) that the reason he US haven,t gone for the Kyoto treaty is that the concensus is that the oil will run out so soon (30~ years) that there isn't much point in cutting down now anyway.

Also, on another matter, that there isn't really enough space to grow food stuff's to feed the cows for maccie D's

 

[bambodoggy]

Also, on another matter, that there isn't really enough space to grow food stuff's to feed the cows for maccie D's

That's very true buddy...but did you know that there is more of the Amazon rainforest being cut down to grow Soya then to graze cattle..... those darn veggies are eating us out of house and home...!!! lol

 

[Fluxus]

Yikes Bambodoggy, where to start?

Are you going to make all the Veggy's in the world eat meat because there isn't enough room to grow all their veg? again I don't think so!

Bam.

I guess there are a few here who might take exception with that. Check out a basic ecology book on energy transfers in food chains for a start.

not all veggies eat soya -
not much of it comes from south america anyway
a vegetarian diet has an ecological footprint about a tenth that of an eater of farmed meat. The existing farmland area of the UK, taking into account climatic and soil variations etc. could sustain a population of 200 million vegetarians, without imports.
lets not sling the mud in the wrong direction eh?

 

[Jack]

Yikes Bambodoggy, where to start?

I guess there are a few here who might take exception with that. Check out a basic ecology book on energy transfers in food chains for a start.

not all veggies eat soya -
not much of it comes from south america anyway
a vegetarian diet has an ecological footprint about a tenth that of an eater of farmed meat. The existing farmland area of the UK, taking into account climatic and soil variations etc. could sustain a population of 200 million vegetarians, without imports.
lets not sling the mud in the wrong direction eh?

Fluxus is pretty bang on there.

It is also interesting to note, and this is only my opinion, but the reason that we have vegetarians in this country is purely because we have to much choice. We can now deicide what we will and won't eat. The key word here, is 'choice'. It may be a sign that society has to much, so much that we can now make the choice of which food groups we choose to eat.

My ancestors never had the choice. My farther never had the choice as he was brought up on rationing plus what they could catch out in the fields which of course was rabbit. In my grandfathers day, no one ever heard of vegetarians, you ate what you had. Period.

 

[BorderReiver]

Are you going to make all the Veggy's in the world eat meat because there isn't enough room to grow all their veg? again I don't think so!

Bam.

Wrong way round old son.It takes a hell of a lot more land to grow meat than it does to grow vegetation to feed the same number of people.

But on the whole I agree with you.Why worry? The planet will sort itself out.We won't be here to see it though.

The increase in human numbers means that pandemics become more and more likely,so we should decline in number so that we become less of a problem to the rest of the life forms.

 

[FeralSheryl]

Think before you procreate mes amies or Bushcraft will be Urbancraft for everyone

 

[stotRE]

Think before you procreate mes amies or Bushcraft will be Urbancraft for everyone

People should watch more t.v. and spend less time in the bedroom lol

 

[bambodoggy]

It is also interesting to note, and this is only my opinion, but the reason that we have vegetarians in this country is purely because we have to much choice. We can now deicide what we will and won't eat. The key word here, is 'choice'. It may be a sign that society has to much, so much that we can now make the choice of which food groups we choose to eat.

Yar Boo Sucks!!!! You guys and gals carry on believing your own hype and propaganda, I on the other hand am not in the slightest bit interested in mindless agrueing about things we can't change....when I finish this reply I'm going out to the woods for a few hours to forget about you all

The only person to come close to understanding what I've said was Jack, so thank you Jack, nice to know somebody was listening

If anyone bothered to look things up before jumping on the bandwagon then they'd know that the single largest contributor to Brazilian deforestation at this present time is Soya farming, that's not up for discussion, it's a fact.

Fluxus, if you jig the stats enough they'll tell you that your father is really your mother!!!! Meat has a much higher calorific value than veggies which is why so many northern people's used to live on it, but what we are stiving for is a balance and certainly not the whole of the UK turned into one massive farm! Why are so many veggies anemic too out of interest?
It might also interest you to know that rather a lot of the worlds soya does come from South America and that Brazil exports four times more non-meat food than it's population eats. I agree that Cattle ranching and pasture used to be the fastest reason for deforestation and has still distroyed more than anything else (although gold minnig has done it's fair share too) but Soya farming is now the fastest growning reason.
I'm not sligging mud at anyone, I'm simply pointing out my opinon with two examples, the veggy and the little Johnny....

Right, enough of this....enjoy the rest of your day in front of the PC....I'm off to the woods

 

[Fluxus]

when I finish this reply I'm going out to the woods for a few hours to forget about you all

Right, enough of this....enjoy the rest of your day in front of the PC....I'm off to the woods

.....to chop the big chip off my shoulder! ;-p

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

" to everything there is a season.." When I was active supporting Julia Butterfly's treesit a fellow horseman decided to attack me at a horseshow. The ghist of her argument was also " everything dies out anyway." So, I came back with the current theories of the great megafauna dieoff during the Pliestocene being hastened, if not finallized by a certain predator with rather efficient hunting points. Those points by the way now postulating a connection to european lithic tools and TWO migrations to the new world. Anyway, I explained that HORSES came very, very close to winding up very much extinct because PEOPLE ATE THEM. I then stated modern humanity is making the same value judgements on every life form's right to exist. We could easily see a paradigm shift in values and wipe out Black Beauty and her friends as quickly as the Tunas she loves eating at sushi bars, Polar Bears allready showing a 15% weight loss due to global warming and the great temperate rainforests of North America being turned into patio furniture and cheap housing. Most of that was lost to my audience, but the thought of their beloved horses vanishing sent many people home clutching their leadropes a little tighter. It IS bleak. But I subsribe to the axiom " if your not part of the solution, your part of the problem." I haven't done 1/10th of what I could, but I've done 1000% more than most of the slack jawed, latte-sucking asphalt pounding yuppies that see a weed growing in the sidewalk and reach for a gallon of herbicide. We may lose, but I for one intend to give the shortsighted greedheads of the world a goodfight AND enjoy life while I'm at it.

 

[innocent bystander]

Just to put a few more log's on the fire, how about this :
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/printer_052305EB.shtml

It would seem to suggest that it isn't the vegetarians that are eating the amazon soya. It's cattle feed for maccie d's

 

[FeralSheryl]

Surely the problem lies with the fact that as a species - and a careless one at that - there are just too many of us? Food for cattle/food for vegetarians... it seems to me that these are just symptoms, not causes of the problem. Humankind is still a primative species no matter how we like to see ourselves as advanced.

Everyone on this Forum is here because we love the Wild. If everyone here makes an effort to tread lightly as we enjoy life, we leave a little less trampled ground don't you think?

 

[Biddlesby]

People should watch more t.v. and spend less time in the bedroom lol

Firstly - lol.

Secondly, I agree that many problems as described lie in problems with:

• Excessive human population
• "Slack jawed, latte-sucking asphalt pounding yuppies"

Introduce birth controls, kill the yuppies and you're halfway there .

 

[Wayland]

I subscribe to a very strict vegetarian diet.

Everything I eat is definately a vegetarian...........

 

[arctic hobo]

Fluxus, if you jig the stats enough they'll tell you that your father is really your mother!!!! Meat has a much higher calorific value than veggies which is why so many northern people's used to live on it, but what we are stiving for is a balance and certainly not the whole of the UK turned into one massive farm! Why are so many veggies anemic too out of interest?

Never mind all those indispensable amino acids, which you can't get enough of without skewing your diet with too much carbohydrate (which will make you fat, athlete or no, as it's a ratio of protein to carbs), the bioavailability of crops (how well the proteins match what you need - mostly awful in non-animal products)... there's more if I wanted to prove a point. Excuse me if I'm over-eager but holding an A level in Nutrition means I'm a little touchy about vegetarians
Now, like Bambam, I'm off to the woods