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Recent Posts
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
- Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath
- Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
- Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
- Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”
- Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
- What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months?
- Where to be? Links to Superfund, hazardous waste and other toxic sites in U.S.
- Why methanol cannot replace petroleum in shipping
- Why is everyone afraid of AI taking over? It makes stuff up!
- Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?
Category Archives: Extinction Experts
The nine boundaries we must not cross or we may go extinct
Preface. This post has excerpts from the famous paper by Rockström et al (2009) as well as a more recent proposal by Running (2012) on an easier measure of how close we’re coming to rendering the planet uninhabitable. The media … Continue reading
Posted in Acidification, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Extinction, Peak Oil, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, Sea Level Rise, Water, World's Best Scientists
Tagged atmospheric aerosol loading, biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, biological diversity, boundaries, chemical pollution, climate change, Earth, extinction, global freshwater use, global warming, IPCC, land system change, ocean acidification, ozone hole, peak oil, phosphorus cycle, stratospheric ozone, sustainability
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Civilizations last just 336 years on average
Preface. I stopped trying to find out why each civilization failed because it’s not always clear and historians bicker over it, so I was glad to run across this article that attempts to summarize this broad topic. It’s clear drought, … Continue reading
E. O. Wilson to save humanity from extinction, get rid of religion
[ Below is an excerpt, out of order, from New Scientist’s 21 Jan 2015 interview with E.O. Wilson “Religious faith is dragging us down“. The extinctions we cause will kill us too, says the sociobiology pioneer – the best thing … Continue reading
Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
University of Cambridge: Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Some of Britain’s finest minds are drawing up a “doomsday list” of catastrophic events that could devastate the world, pose a threat to civilization and might even lead to … Continue reading
Posted in Cambridge Centre Study of Existential Risk, Scientists Warnings to Humanity
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Science editor-in-chief Marcia McNutt : Climate Change + other ecosystem damage = extinction
Climate Change Impacts Marcia McNutt is Editor-in-Chief of Science. 2 August 2013. Science: Vol. 341 no. 6145 p. 435 We are not just experiencing increases in greenhouse gas emissions but also eutrophication, pollution of the air and water, massive land … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction Experts, Planetary Boundaries
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Stephen Hawking: Escape to another planet before we go extinct
The only method of propulsion we have to escape the planet is, you guessed it, fossil fuels, and they don’t come anywhere near to getting us to the speed of light necessary to get to even the closest star. Nor … Continue reading
Posted in Cambridge Centre Study of Existential Risk, What to do
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Noam Chomsky: If Nuclear War Doesn’t Get Us, Climate Change Will
The growing threats of nuclear war and environmental catastrophe make it hard to bet on the survival of our species. Watch the video at: http://www.thenation.com/video/173205/noam-chomsky-if-nuclear-war-doesnt-get-us-climate-change-will#
Posted in Extinction Experts
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Extinction has Nearly Happened Before: The Human Bottleneck
Sam Kean. 19 Jul 2012. Blogging the Human Genome Entry 10: The chromosomal evidence that mankind nearly went extinct. Slate.com Take your pick for the cause of our near-extinction—ice ages, plagues, Indonesian gigavolcanoes. But humans have far less genetic diversity … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction Experts
Tagged bottleneck, extinction, human survival
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The Onion (satire): Scientists: ‘Look, One-Third Of The Human Race Has To Die For Civilization To Be Sustainable, So How Do We Want To Do This?’
26 Jan 2012. Scientists: ‘Look, One-Third Of The Human Race Has To Die For Civilization To Be Sustainable, So How Do We Want To Do This?‘ WASHINGTON—Saying there’s no way around it at this point, a coalition of scientists announced … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction Experts
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Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 2012. Doomsday Clock 1 minute closer to Midnight
It is Now 5 Minutes to Midnight. Doomsday Clock Moves 1 minute closer to midnight. 10 January 2012. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Faced with inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, continuing inaction on climate change, and the … Continue reading
Posted in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
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