The Late Devonian mass extinction was the result of plant-life evolving to perform photosynthesis and net-positive release of a corrosive toxic gas known as Oxygen. Rapid proliferation of plant life, which existed with virtually no natural predators and well before the advent of decomposing fungi, resulted in a massive sequestration of carbon which lowered the temperature of the planet drastically.
What humans are doing is cataclysmic for the current biome. But never forget we are on earth’s 6th mass extinction event. What humans enjoy that so many prior species lacked was scientific precognition. We know the consequences of our behaviors and can anticipate them in a way prior dominant species could not. But we are one more lifeform. We are part of the earth, not divorced from it.
We are still, at a fundamental level, a consequence of the natural forces that created us. The sudden rapid re-release of all that sequestered carbon is as natural as the process that formed it 378M years ago.
Thank you!! Finally someone not treating humans as a sort of cancer, separate of nature, and that all the nice and friendly animals (humans are definitely not animals!!11!) wait for them to disappear to live here in an untouched harmony for millennia. What we need people to understand is that we don’t protect the environment, our environment for the planet, sea turtles, or life in general, we do it as to prevent our own extinction.
also we’re not re-releasing all of the sequestered carbon. more like a thousandth of it.
all oxygen today used to be CO2. so there was at least 200 mbar (mili-bar, 10^-3 bar) of CO2 in the atmosphere. humanity has released 200 ubar (micro-bar, 10^-6 bar) of CO2 so far, and if the renewable energy buildout continues at the current exponential rate, we’re gonna release maybe 300 or 400 ubar in total before no more fossil fuels will be burned. that’s approximately 0.2% of what was sequestered.
The sudden rapid re-release of all that sequestered carbon is as natural as the process that formed it 378M years ago.
Let me highlight. You are telling industrial revolution, and the emmision of green house gases is as natural as, some other process happened in the nature? And humans continued doing it even after knowing the consequences of it, even when there were much better alternatives abundantly available?
You are telling industrial revolution, and the emmision of green house gases is as natural as, some other process happened in the nature?
Or as unnatural, if you prefer. Humans are a product of their biome. Human intelligence is a result of the same natural selection processes that created photosynthesis and fungal decomposition. Human behaviors are a result of ecological forces and stimulus. Human economics is predicated on the raw natural materials available for development. Human science is predicated on the observation of the natural world.
I’m struggling to see the “natural” part of it.
Show me a thing a human has done that a natural force hasn’t.
Everything from naturally occurring nuclear reactors to Natural polymers (aka: plastics) already exist. And our industrial application of their techniques is the result of our study of their natural function.
We’re an invasive species. We’re an apex predator. We produce tons of non-decomposible waste products. But other species - particularly, species responsible for global extinction events - have filled this role in prior eras.
We recognize the hazards of this very natural and organic process of human proliferation and development as a problem only because we can recognize the ultimate outcomes of unchecked growth.
The only truly unnatural thing humans do is to recognize our own threat of mass extinction and actively seek to prevent it.
As far as I am aware, nothing has ever released this much sustained co2 over such a short period. Even outliers like the Deccan traps did it far more slowly.
So there’s usually, after a while, bacteria develop that can consume stuff. Plastic currently stays just because the bacteria consuming it haven’t developed yet.
But there was one exception. Early trees. Nothing could consume those. Dead trees just piled up and turned into coal. After millions of years, bacteria that can consume dead trees developed, but they still couldn’t consume the coal.
But way later, another species developed, one that digs out the coal and consumes it by burning it.
If we look at it this way, the only “unnatural” thing here is those trees that resisted consumption for so long.
The Late Devonian mass extinction was the result of plant-life evolving to perform photosynthesis and net-positive release of a corrosive toxic gas known as Oxygen. Rapid proliferation of plant life, which existed with virtually no natural predators and well before the advent of decomposing fungi, resulted in a massive sequestration of carbon which lowered the temperature of the planet drastically.
What humans are doing is cataclysmic for the current biome. But never forget we are on earth’s 6th mass extinction event. What humans enjoy that so many prior species lacked was scientific precognition. We know the consequences of our behaviors and can anticipate them in a way prior dominant species could not. But we are one more lifeform. We are part of the earth, not divorced from it.
We are still, at a fundamental level, a consequence of the natural forces that created us. The sudden rapid re-release of all that sequestered carbon is as natural as the process that formed it 378M years ago.
Thank you!! Finally someone not treating humans as a sort of cancer, separate of nature, and that all the nice and friendly animals (humans are definitely not animals!!11!) wait for them to disappear to live here in an untouched harmony for millennia. What we need people to understand is that we don’t protect the environment, our environment for the planet, sea turtles, or life in general, we do it as to prevent our own extinction.
also we’re not re-releasing all of the sequestered carbon. more like a thousandth of it.
all oxygen today used to be CO2. so there was at least 200 mbar (mili-bar, 10^-3 bar) of CO2 in the atmosphere. humanity has released 200 ubar (micro-bar, 10^-6 bar) of CO2 so far, and if the renewable energy buildout continues at the current exponential rate, we’re gonna release maybe 300 or 400 ubar in total before no more fossil fuels will be burned. that’s approximately 0.2% of what was sequestered.
Let me highlight. You are telling industrial revolution, and the emmision of green house gases is as natural as, some other process happened in the nature? And humans continued doing it even after knowing the consequences of it, even when there were much better alternatives abundantly available?
I’m struggling to see the “natural” part of it.
Humans are part of nature.
Being part of nature doesn’t make your behavior natural.
Humans existed on this planet for thousands of years without releasing massive amounts of carbon.
Humans are part of nature as well
Or as unnatural, if you prefer. Humans are a product of their biome. Human intelligence is a result of the same natural selection processes that created photosynthesis and fungal decomposition. Human behaviors are a result of ecological forces and stimulus. Human economics is predicated on the raw natural materials available for development. Human science is predicated on the observation of the natural world.
Show me a thing a human has done that a natural force hasn’t.
Everything from naturally occurring nuclear reactors to Natural polymers (aka: plastics) already exist. And our industrial application of their techniques is the result of our study of their natural function.
We’re an invasive species. We’re an apex predator. We produce tons of non-decomposible waste products. But other species - particularly, species responsible for global extinction events - have filled this role in prior eras.
We recognize the hazards of this very natural and organic process of human proliferation and development as a problem only because we can recognize the ultimate outcomes of unchecked growth.
The only truly unnatural thing humans do is to recognize our own threat of mass extinction and actively seek to prevent it.
As far as I am aware, nothing has ever released this much sustained co2 over such a short period. Even outliers like the Deccan traps did it far more slowly.
So there’s usually, after a while, bacteria develop that can consume stuff. Plastic currently stays just because the bacteria consuming it haven’t developed yet.
But there was one exception. Early trees. Nothing could consume those. Dead trees just piled up and turned into coal. After millions of years, bacteria that can consume dead trees developed, but they still couldn’t consume the coal.
But way later, another species developed, one that digs out the coal and consumes it by burning it.
If we look at it this way, the only “unnatural” thing here is those trees that resisted consumption for so long.
There actually are multiple bacteria which can eat PET plastic now. The ocean is lousy with them because that’s where we put all the plastic. :)