dohboi wrote:
One thing to keep in mind is that there is already a mass extinction going on, mostly NOT having to do with the damaging effects of GW.
This is true. The rest of your post is a bit hyperbole and conjecture.
Habitat destruction and the introduction of invasive species represent cause number 1 and cause number 2 of the current rise of extinctions globally. The mosquito and the rat have caused far more extinctions in the 19th century than GW has caused to date in the 21st century. Rats and mosquitoes caused the extinction of over 25 bird species alone in Hawaii in the past 200 years.
Going down on the food chain to insect vectors carrying blights and fungal diseases and the extinction rates go exponentially higher in the 20th century due to invasive species. Think American Chestnut caused by a asian blight carried by a bug or the Chytrid fungus spread from the pet trade that invaded native habitat globally and has alone caused the extinction of dozens of species of amphibians globally in the last 20 years. These are just a couple of examples. Go talk to some Australians if you want more info on the devastating impact of invasive species on native flora and fauna.
We get regularly fresh information regarding this first hand from specialists who visit us and are directly involved in working with the cause number 1 and cause number 2 mentioned above. We don't get climate change scientists coming here, my first hand inputs come directly from many of our guests dedicated to preserving biodiversity, doing taxonomy and also studying the ramification of invasives. A lot of my information and my own conclusions come from this interaction and what I have observed directly here in the 400 acres I know intimately.
I frankly have very little patience for posters who copy and paste studies from the internet and then draw hyperbolic amateur conclusions regarding global warming. It is one of my reasons I see the internet as decadent because one gets the impression by engaging in this way that they are actually having some sort of impact. What is all this posting about apocolyptic mass extinction predictions contributing anyway toward effective mitigation? When is the last time you paid attention to a Jehovah Witness who rang your doorbell?
Basically though I am in agreement Dohboi, yes, things are fucked up enough without piling on the future consequences of GW. But I see GW acting as glyphosate mostly on humanity, it will disproportionately impact the very fragile arrangement of humans and their slave flora and fauna. I welcome this along with any of the other vectors and direct pathogens that seriously but a dent in the out of balance status of human overshoot.
Furthermore, It makes no sense to dwell on future impacts of climate change when the cultural paradigm and inertia of feeding and meeting the aspirations of a growing population of Kudzu Apes has each and every government paralyzed to do any real mitigation. That is the sad and real truth. And it will become more so as the consequences themselves increasingly will create a reaction of putting out fires instead of addressing what is fueling those fires..... no pun intended. We are locked into this sad reality and external agency is the only viable mitigation, of which I predict climate change will be key.
Frankly, I don't give a rats ass for the dire straits of humanity heading into the painful decades of the correction of human overshoot, the BIG SQUEEZE as I like to refer it. My focus is on those pockets of refugee populations of native ecosystems standing on the sidelines waiting for the big squeeze to open space for recolonization. That is my singular focus actually. Refuge populations of flora and fauna is what will be key to minimizing the degree of extinction.
If the refuge population of native flora and fauna is completely obliterated like on many Philippine islands in SE Asia well then yep, this will be a grand royal fuck up and yes a mass extinction event. Look around though and there are vast and I mean vast areas of still preserved biodiversity and quite a bit of successful biodiversity studies during the past 50 years that have identified biodiversity hot spots and as a result national parks and preserves and conservation areas have been established. These refugee populations can be as small as a few acres..... The most iconic example perhaps on the planet is to fly into Borneo or Sumatra and look down from the airplane at the vast monoculture of oil palms that goes on mile after mile until you reach the small remnant national parks where Orangutans are holding on. A tiny island of natural ecosystem, of biodiversity surrounded by an immense mono culture of one of humans slave crops. The scenario in my head looks at the crash of demand for oil palm once consequences of human overshoot starts the retreat of our global population. As oil palm plantations are abandoned how long do you think it would take in Borneo for refuge populations of native ecosystems in those few remaining national parks to recolonize these areas? I have witnessed enough examples of this bounce back to be pretty confident at the answer.
Dohboi, since you recognize habitat destruction and invasive species as the current real cause of the rise in extinctions surely you should recognize that this is the one area where direct action can be taken, preserving remaining pockets and refuge areas that will represent the source material of biodiversity from where former human habitat will one day be recolonized.
The GW stuff is sadly not within our capability to mitigate, not with the inertia mentioned above. For this reason I see it as an ally to correcting human overshoot instead of something to fret over.
That is my rant on this topic.
If there is a last point it is that I have never trusted the concern over climate change while everyone was looking the other way over the cause no. 1 and cause no. 2 of extinctions. (habitat destruction and invasives)
If you want to know the really sad truth concern over climate change is more about preserving the status quo rather than changing it.
Fixing threats to human resiliency is not a good idea at this late stage of human overshoot. The concern over climate change reeks of this hypocrisy.