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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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#  

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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

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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

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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

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