humanity-the next asteroid?

[homegrown terror]

252 million years ago, for reasons that are still hotly debated by paleontologists, 96% of aquatic life and 70% of all terrestrial life on earth died.

65.5 million years ago, 80% of all species in the world, including the dinosaurs, pterosaurs and icthyosaurs went extinct, most likely due to a catastrophic asteroid impact, though that explanation is still lacking in definite proof

today, human beings are running rampant with the environment. global warming IS happening, and while it may not be caused by us, and could be a natural function of the earth's life cycle, human beings aren't doing anything to stop it, either. a nuclear war, with the destructive capacity that a modern warhead entails, could very well spur another mass extinction just like the permian-triassic and cretaceous-tertiary events. human beings may be the next asteroid to wipe the slate clean, and who knows what might come next? i only hope that when whatever it is happens, it takes out every man, woman and child with it, because history has shown that people are like snails in a tank: if you leave any at all, you'll have a new swarm again, it's only a matter of time, and honestly i think the world's had enough of our meddling.

in short, life will go on LONG after we're gone, and there's practically nothing we can do to stop it. somewhere life will survive, even if it's just a bacteria, an amoeba, or a cluster of lichen, and the world will live again.

sorry, just having a brain dump.

[ChoclateBetta]

Also like a snail problem even taking down the whole tank does not guarantee them gone. I agree with you on the extinction. Eventually we will go extinct it is a matter of time before that happens. 99 percent of life to have ever existed on earth is extinct. The earth and it's life will not last forever either. The sun will eventually die. The moon is going away from earth. Life on earth will eventually die out.

[thekinetic]

Humanity is unbelievable survivers and adaptable it will take a total anniliation of the planet to get rid of us. So much that it will not recover.

Also global warming is debatable seeing as we live under a pulsar that is well known to wax and wane in intensity. We are right now in a high end of it's cycle, thus the temperature of the planet is going to be considerably higher than normal just as with it's low would bring colder temperatures. I'm not talking "oh it's little this or that" but more of a "holy crap it's this or that" kind of change, and this is well documented but often or should I say conviently overlooked by people. Not that we're not doing damage to the ozone layer but probably not as much as you'd think.

They always like to show glaciers falling apart on shows but they don't tell you that they do that anyway as ice does crack, and 95% of the glacier is underneath the water. Hence the term "tip of iceberg"!

[SnowySurface]

I would just like to mention that Global Warming is the warming of the globe. Just because the atmosphere doesn't feel different (i.e. eternal summer in am 4 seasons area), doesn't mean the ground we walk on isn't getting hotter over time. In fact, the earth is supposed to heat up over time as long as the sun exist. Therefore, Global warming is a natural occurance that would happen whether people lived on the Earth or not. The real arguement is, "Are humans making the natural process our planet under goes worse than it has to be?"

The answer to that question is "Yes, humans are making the natural increase in the temperature of the globe faster and more drastic than it should be." Most of the time I state things as my opinion. But humans as a species have to face facts. Since the dawn of human civilization humans as a species have:

Hunted many animals into or near extinction (and continue to do so even with laws in place to stop them)
Damged animal habbits to the point that some species of plant and animal died before we even knew they existed (which, again, involves ignoring laws that tell them not to)
Torn the planet apart on the inside drilling for oil, mining for ores and stones (Then spilling said oil)
Ravaged the surface of the Earth with strip mining, deforestation, and pollution (Look outside your nearest window for a piece of liter)
Contaminated the air around us with exhuast from factories, businesses, homes, and transportation (NY has the asthma rates to prove this one. Seriously, we're keeping score)
Created islands of litter in oceans (We even named it T_T)
Polluted the water and land with hazardous and non hazardous waste (Love Canal)
Set off nuclear bombs on the surface of the Earth (Do I really need a reference? -_-)

And this is simply a partial list I can think of off the top of my head.

Anyone who doesn't believe in Global Warming is in deniel. You can't abuse a planet the way humans have without terrible consequences. V_V

[BettaHeart]

not snails but more like cancer.

[nel3]

there will be plastic and rubber that remains long after we're gone on land (if not burnt) and in the ocean. there are a few garbage gires in the ocean of human litter. pretty damn sad if you ask me that the problem is that serious.

[TheCrabbyTabby]

Humanity is a cancer. I like that analogy.

[BettaHeart]

it wouldnt be so if we still lived the nomadic life-style but the lifestyle now is "modern" and "progressive" and prosperous in some twisted view

[Hallyx]

I've been ranting and railing about "Comet Sapiens" for over 40 years now. It's always a delight for me to see someone, presumably younger, come to the same conclusion using the same analogy.

Cheers, Mr. Terror

Not cancer. More like slime mold. ;-}

[Aus]

Gosh.

I cannot, of course, approve of the horrific way we've (collectively) treated our planet in the past couple of hundred years.

But... I also can't be a total hater. Humans are pretty amazing, and capable of incredible depth and compassion as well as cruelty and pathological ignorance. It makes me sad to see us all lumped under terms like 'cancer' and 'slime', etc. I'm sorry - but what a dismal, lightless point of view.

I don't think the world will 'end' any time soon. Things will change and we'll survive or we won't. But you know-- I hope we do. I hope we learn from our errors and get to stick around for at least a few hundred thousand years more. Which is a just drop in the bucket, considering we've got something like another five billion years before our sun goes supernova.

Call me an optimist. But we've learned to live in harmony with our world before, and I believe there's every chance we will (sooner or .. hopefully not too much later..) learn to do it again.