Not really. Planet isn’t being killed. Planet will be fine long after we’re gone. Just another extinction chapter in a long history of extinction. We probably wouldn’t even be the biggest extinction event.
No, what we’re killing is ourselves. Sooner or later we’d have changed so much if our environment that it’s no longer capable to sustain us. Then a large enough portion of humanity will end up dying to the point we can no longer sustain ourselves.
Planet isn’t being killed.
Sixth mass extinction in planetary history. We’re wiping mega-fauna and floral colonies off the map faster than at any time since the dinosaurs went extinct.
No, what we’re killing is ourselves.
Of all the life forms that have a chance of surviving climate apocalypse, humans are better positioned than most.
We survived the Ice Age with far less. If 99% of the human population was wiped out tomorrow, there would still be more of us than during the era of Alexander the Great.
The loss would be in biodiversity. A great deal of what makes living on Earth pleasant would be gone.
“Since the dinosaurs” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. I wasn’t exclusively talking about the period after the dinosaurs as that’s a rather arbitrary to limit the argument to.
Earth has experienced at least two major extinctions where most life just ceased to exist. Both times due to massive climate events.
The previous glacial period does not compare to what global warming will cause. And we’ve had plenty of huntable food sources back then.
Biodiversity is the one key factor that determines if Humanity will survive at all. We like to think that we don’t need biodiversity to survive like every other lifeform on Earth, but it is essential to our survival.
If biodiversity goes, Earth cannot sustain any population of humans.
Great post - I actually feel ever so slightly less pessimistic about the future… not joking. Perspective is a powerful thing.
So what analogy would you use if not killing? Giving the earth a nap?
“We” aren’t killing ourselves. “We” are being killed. And “We” know exactly who is doing all that the killing.
You could say so. But COVID-19 has told me otherwise. Any kind of lifestyle change in the face of an impending disaster will be met with extreme resistance by regular people.
What people want is a solution to problems they don’t have to think about, do anything for, and/or change anything about themselves for.
So yes, “we” are killing ourselves.
It’s a lot easier to change lifestyles once society rids itself of the people who are getting rich from the current lifestyles.
I went vegan in order to try and make a positive change. my reasoning is that how can you change the world of you can’t even change what you eat for breakfast.
