Categories
-
Recent Posts
- Lab-grown meat is energy intensive – and up to 25 times worse for the climate than beef
- The Biblical Revelations, critical thinking, and how this affects us today
- Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- 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
Category Archives: Extinction
Earth’s Magnetic Flips May Have Triggered Mass Extinctions
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/06/10/earths-magnetic-flips-may-triggered-mass-extinctions/#.U5oyJ41dVXu Earth’s Magnetic Flips May Have Triggered Mass Extinctions At several times in Earth’s history, mass extinctions have come close to wiping life out altogether. The reasons for these catastrophes are still unclear – they’ve been blamed on everything from asteroid impacts to cosmic … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction
Comments Off on Earth’s Magnetic Flips May Have Triggered Mass Extinctions
Without a Trace ‘The Sixth Extinction,’ by Elizabeth Kolbert
Review by Al Gore Feb 10, 2014. New York Times. Over the past decade, Elizabeth Kolbert has established herself as one of our very best science writers. She has developed a distinctive and eloquent voice of conscience on issues arising … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Extinction Books
Comments Off on Without a Trace ‘The Sixth Extinction,’ by Elizabeth Kolbert
People are devouring the earth: 83% of land, 60% freshwater runoff, 40% of plants, 35% of productivity of oceanic shelf, 98% of land that can grow rice, wheat, corn
Hillary Mayell. October 25, 2002. Human “Footprint” Seen on 83 Percent of Earth’s Land. National Geographic News. There is little debate in scientific circles about the importance of human influence on ecosystems. According to scientists’ reports: Humans use 83% of … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Overpopulation, Population
Tagged extinction, overpopulation
Comments Off on People are devouring the earth: 83% of land, 60% freshwater runoff, 40% of plants, 35% of productivity of oceanic shelf, 98% of land that can grow rice, wheat, corn
We’ve taken over too much of the planet for pasture and crops
In the article “Primeval planet: What if humans had never existed?” by Christopher Kemp in NewScientist, these charts of increasing intensity of pasture and crop land from 5000 BC (18,000,000 population) until 2000 (6,150,000,000 people) show that humans are laying … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Overpopulation
Tagged agriculture, aquifer depletion, biodiversity loss, crops, green house gas emissions, pasture, rangeland, topsoil erosion
Comments Off on We’ve taken over too much of the planet for pasture and crops
Phytoplankton have declined 40%: they provide food and oxygen for all creatures on Earth
This article from NewScientist discusses how phytoplankton are disappearing — and they provide half of the food animals both in the ocean and on land depend on, plus produce a great deal of the oxygen we breathe. Throw in overfishing, … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Fishery destruction, Global Warming, Mass Extinction, Oceans
Comments Off on Phytoplankton have declined 40%: they provide food and oxygen for all creatures on Earth
Why we might not go extinct from fossil fuel emissions
Peak Fossils means Peak Emissions and the lowest to medium IPCC projections at worst This is an overview, other posts in this category contain peer-reviewed papers that show why this is true. The heart of the problem is that the … Continue reading
Peak Coal already happened or likely soon, so worst IPCC scenarios may never happen
[ The good news is that The IPCC has greatly exaggerated the amount of coal reserves we actually have The scientists below find that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has greatly exaggerated coal reserves, so the IPCC scenario … Continue reading
Posted in But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Climate Change, CO2 and Methane, Coal, Global Warming, Peak Coal, Planetary Boundaries, Runaway Greenhouse
Tagged peak coal
Comments Off on Peak Coal already happened or likely soon, so worst IPCC scenarios may never happen
20% of Invertebrate species threatened with extinction.
Brendan Borrell. Sep 3, 2012. One Fifth of Invertebrate Species at Risk of Extinction. Freshwater snails and reef-building corals are among the threatened groups. Nature & Scientific American. One in five of the world’s invertebrate species are threatened with extinction, … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Extinction
Tagged extinct, extinction, invertebrate
Comments Off on 20% of Invertebrate species threatened with extinction.
Methane’s potential for another major extinction event
June 22, 2016. As Alaska warms, methane emissions appear stable, study finds. phys.org. Excerpts: One reason no increase has been seen may be that “Bacteria that produce methane and bacteria that consume methane will both become more active as temperatures … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Runaway Greenhouse
Comments Off on Methane’s potential for another major extinction event
Biodiversity loss impact on ecosystem worse than climate change and pollution
David U. Hooper, et al. A global synthesis reveals biodiversity loss as a major driver of ecosystem change. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11118 “This analysis establishes that reduced biodiversity affects ecosystems at levels comparable to those of global warming or air … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Extinction
Comments Off on Biodiversity loss impact on ecosystem worse than climate change and pollution