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Today's climate change update.

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jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


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Here and there,
#1New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 04:34:47
Just a few tidbits for thought:

The last time the planet saw a warming trend similar to the one we're in, it involved mass worldwide extinctions and sudden, dramatic shifts of global biomes. And that trend was about 5-10 times slower than this one.

Also, global carbon output is currently outpacing the IPCC's 2007 worst-case scenario estimates. Atmospheric carbon levels are increasing at what appears to be the fastest rate ever in the modern atmosphere.

Just sayin.
raditz On March 24, 2024
Blah





Houston, Texas
#2New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 04:40:01
Any mass extinctions yet?
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#3New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 04:45:34
@raditz Said

Any mass extinctions yet?


We're already seeing climate change threaten many species around the world. By and large, climate change is shifting habitats toward the poles and up in altitude. The habitat movement is going way too fast for non-mobile life forms, such as plants and trees, to keep up. As flora provide a necessary habitat for many animal species, these animals are getting squeezed out of their natural habitats and are suffering real losses.

As these habitats move, many also contract. This cuts off populations of species from each other, isolating them and squeezing them out as their habitats contract and disappear. Land use changes really don't help.

High-altitude habitats have already begun to straight-up disappear.

This is really, actually happening.

That's not even mentioning ocean acidification, which is happening at an alarming rate. We're already seeing devastating effects on coral reefs around the globe thanks to ocean temperatures and acidity. We could see massive, massive global effects on shelled ocean life in our lifetimes.
Eaglebauer On July 23, 2019
Moderator
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Saint Louis, Missouri
#4New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 04:50:46
Should a mass extinction event really be the point at which we start paying attention anyway, or shouldn't we start a little earlier than that?
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


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Here and there,
#5New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:10:45
Good point EB.

Besides, what do people think "extinction events" looked like? They're not all meteor-crash cataclysms. These are, compared to human lifetimes, extraordinarily slow processes that historically take thousands of years.

What we're seeing, today, are the accelerated beginnings of mass extinction events. We're watching biomes and habitats move, change, and often simply disappear at all levels.
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#6New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:14:03
All sorts of crazy s*** is happening with regards to biological consequences. Flowers and trees are starting to bloom earlier, but the insects that pollinate them aren't ready yet. Then when the insects are ready, there are fewer of them around. The flowers suffer and the insect populations suffer.

Guess who else suffers: the birds that eat the insects. The birds expect the insects to be there and they are not, so they don't have food to eat. Bird migration patterns are also getting screwed up, so things are going out of whack.

Yes, there's always been natural variation, but never this fast. We're literally watching ecosystems all over the world change at incredible rates and species are having trouble keeping up.
Eaglebauer On July 23, 2019
Moderator
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Saint Louis, Missouri
#7New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:19:14
I think there's a dangerously cavalier attitude among a lot of folks also when it comes to the ecosystem. A great deal of people don't understand how cohesive it really is and that the slightest change in one part of it can have devastating results for the rest of it.

Unless they are big and immediately visible a lot of people think problems just aren't there, but nature simply doesn't work that way.

A lot of the s*** that's about to hit the fan (or already hitting it) isn't readily apparent until we look a little more carefully.
shinobinoz On May 28, 2017
Stnd w Standing Rock





Wichita, Kansas
#8New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:24:44
@raditz Said

Any mass extinctions yet?


Is the biosphere today on the verge of anything like the mass extinctions of the geological past? Could some equivalent of meteorite impacts or dramatic climate change be underway, as humankind's rapid destruction of natural habitats forces animals and plants out of existence?

Increasingly, researchers are doing the numbers, and saying, yes, if present trends continue, a mass extinction is very likely underway. The evidence is pieced together from details drawn from all over the world, but it adds up to a disturbing picture. This time, unlike the past, it's not a chance asteroid collision, nor a chain of climatic circumstances alone that's at fault. Instead, it is chiefly the activities of an ever-growing human population, in concert with long-term environmental change.

The background level of extinction known from the fossil record is about one species per million species per year, or between 10 and 100 species per year (counting all organisms such as insects, bacteria, and fungi, not just the large vertebrates we are most familiar with). In contrast, estimates based on the rate at which the area of tropical forests is being reduced, and their large numbers of specialized species, are that we may now be losing 27,000 species per year to extinction from those habitats alone.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_04.html
Eaglebauer On July 23, 2019
Moderator
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Saint Louis, Missouri
#9New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:28:25
@shinobinoz Said

we may now be losing 27,000 species per year to extinction from those habitats alone.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_04.html



Well, there ya go.
shinobinoz On May 28, 2017
Stnd w Standing Rock





Wichita, Kansas
#10New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:46:52
@Eaglebauer Said

I think there's a dangerously cavalier attitude among a lot of folks also when it comes to the ecosystem. A great deal of people don't understand how cohesive it really is and that the slightest change in one part of it can have devastating results for the rest of it.

Unless they are big and immediately visible a lot of people think problems just aren't there, but nature simply doesn't work that way.

A lot of the s*** that's about to hit the fan (or already hitting it) isn't readily apparent until we look a little more carefully.


Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

Chief Seattle
jonnythan On August 02, 2014
Bringer of rad mirth


Deleted



Here and there,
#11New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:48:06
@shinobinoz Said

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

Chief Seattle


I won't. I can teach my children about the environment, and man's impact on it, without resorting to weird spiritual imagery and metaphor.

Oh, and I will teach my children that the world is theirs to mold as they see fit. I want them to be educated and enabled and empowered to leave their mark.
shinobinoz On May 28, 2017
Stnd w Standing Rock





Wichita, Kansas
#12New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 05:59:42
@jonnythan Said

I won't. I can teach my children about the environment, and man's impact on it, without resorting to weird spiritual imagery and metaphor.

Oh, and I will teach my children that the world is theirs to mold as they see fit. I want them to be educated and enabled and empowered to leave their mark.


Oh yes. I forgot. jonnythan is 100% correct about everything and we all best just follow jonnythan's with regard to anything!
Willi On August 21, 2018




northinmind,
#13New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 06:04:24
@jonnythan Said

I won't. I can teach my children about the environment, and man's impact on it, without resorting to weird spiritual imagery and metaphor.

Oh, and I will teach my children that the world is theirs to mold as they see fit. I want them to be educated and enabled and empowered to leave their mark.



a grave is a mark.
rapid01om On January 16, 2012

Deleted



, United States (general)
#14New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 06:06:14
Apparently one of the biggest indicators of massive extinction (the sixth, apparently) is the disappearance of the honey bees throughout North America and Europe. https://digitaljournal.com/article/304525

Nevertheless, the decline in bees hasn't been blamed directly on global warming. Yet, the bee's demise is of greatest impact to humans due to their role in pollinating the majority of crop species consumed.
shinobinoz On May 28, 2017
Stnd w Standing Rock





Wichita, Kansas
#15New Post! Nov 08, 2011 @ 06:07:57
@Willi Said

a grave is a mark.


I knew a Mark Graves!
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