Scarlet Jewels: Scientific Experts Believe We're in...Fastest Mass Extinction in Earth's History
The NewsLog of Julie Solheim-Roe
 Scientific Experts Believe We're in...Fastest Mass Extinction in Earth's History14 comments
picture 2003-07-28 09:20, by Julie Solheim-Roe

Crisis Poses Major Threat to Human Survival; Public Unaware of Danger.
"Human beings are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If present trends continue one half of all species on earth will be extinct in 100 years.

A majority of the nation's biologists are convinced that a "mass extinction" of plants and animals is underway that poses a major threat to humans in the next century.

"The speed at which species are being lost is much faster than any we've seen in the past -- including those [extinctions] related to meteor collisions," said Daniel Simberloff, a University of Tennessee ecologist and prominent expert in biological diversity who participated in the museum's survey. [Note: the last mass extinction caused by a meteor collision was that of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.]"
The article is a couple years old, but the website is updated currently with countless links and major suggestions for what we can do - basically, spread the word and get involved.

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14 comments

28 Jul 2003 @ 16:03 by Baalberith @67.114.89.98 : Awareness is not the main problem
The site is wrong about one thing (What we can do):

Our central problem right now is NOT that people are not yet aware of the problem.

People know!

Everybody knows!!!

The problem is that PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, nor are they offered any clear comprehensive course of actions or real hand-on concrete projects they feel they can get involved with (other than "donate money" or "sign petitions" that is!) And those people also have to "make a living" (make ends meet, find a job or keep a job, which too often mean sucking up to the system for many of them.) Better burry one's head into the sand and "not know." Not knowing is less painful than knowing that the world is going to hell and feeling powerless about it! Better just vote G.W.Bush and wait for the second coming.

Furthermore we live in a system that has totally succeeded in marginalizing anyone who voice such concerns. Having the concerns is OK (it makes you a good Christian), but making an issue out of them is wrong, it makes you "one of those", you know!

There is such a terrible, TRAGIC waste of human resources here. People would like to get involved. They would like to hear: "Okay, some of the major issue that need to be addressed are this and that, and we are going to need people trained in this and that," or even: "join us and WE'll train you in this and that" (Like the army does, except for a constructive, non-militaristic purpose.) Instead people, good people, willing people, concerned and eager people end-up flipping burgers at McDonald or serving coffee at StarBucks while studying to earn that degree that will make them hirable on the marketplace as a paralegal or a lawyer! Or for those less fortunate, becoming "all they can be" in the Army, Navy, Air force. What a waste, what a waste.

"As he drank the toast he understood with stark clarity the nature of damnation: that it was self-inflicted and irreversible. You ate the meal you had cooked through in turned to fire in your gullet. You drank the traitor's cup to the dregs, but before you set it down it was filled again with gall and wormwood. The lies you told were graven on stone and you carried them at arm's length above your head as a sign of infamy."
(Morris West: Masterclass, 1988)  

29 Jul 2003 @ 16:00 by One of "those" @67.114.89.98 : Breaking the taboos
In today's society there are three things we are not supposed to discuss with family or friends. There used to be two: politics and religion, but now you can add—the environment. Well the heck with that and anybody who believes it. I don't feel like standing quietly by while most of the people in the world  refuse to hear that we are all thoughtlessly destroying almost every living thing on earth.

And before you sign off, thinking I'm either another doomsayer or a conspiracy nut take a moment to consider two things. One, the population of the earth is now over six billion. Two, a third of those people are without adequate supplies of food and water. Would you stand around and do nothing if your family was starving or dying of thirst? Probably not.

So, we have two billion—2,000,000,000 people living under such extremely harsh conditions they have literally nothing left to lose. What do you think that does for world stability? Could this perchance be a root cause for some of the terrorists acts committed here, in Indonesia and the Middle East? 

Is there something each and every one of use can do about it? Yes, and that is what my web page is all about. You can take your hands off your ears again, and please, don't be afraid to talk about the environment; if you don't, who will?  

29 Jul 2003 @ 16:34 by REP America @67.114.89.98 : The Green Elephant
REP America members are among the majority of Republicans who want to conserve, not squander, our natural heritage. Protecting our environment is not a partisan issue. We all benefit from a clean, healthy world; we all treasure natural areas and abundant wildlife.

Unfortunately, some Republicans have made it their goal to undo the laws that have cleaned up our air and water, improved our health, and the quality of our lives, preserved our great natural heritage, and prevented the extinction of many native species, including our national symbol, the bald eagle.

REP America members, like most other Americans, do not want these good laws weakened or eliminated. Nor do we want our natural public lands ruined by industrial exploitation or other harmful uses. We are speaking up as Republicans to let our political party's leaders know we want our great natural heritage preserved, not squandered for short-term gain.  

6 Aug 2003 @ 10:04 by Community of Minds @67.114.89.98 : Global Warning
Is something unusual happening?

Somewhere in the recent past, with the growth of our population and the power of our technology, we have grown into a collective force as powerful as any force of nature. We are no longer mere inhabitants of the planet. We are also it shapers. And as we continue to act like adolescents by testing its physical limits and denying the destructive consequences of our newfound, adult power, we are putting our entire history at risk.

While we treasure our past, it is time to stop denying our impact on the present. It is time, as well, to honor our responsibilities to the children. I believe the time is here for all of us all over the world to finally grow up.  

7 Aug 2003 @ 10:37 by New Horizons @67.114.89.98 : Evolutionary bounce or....
.....evolutionary crash?

Plant and animal species are being destroyed at a frightening rate. Our population is expanding at a pace that our planet cannot support. We are gobbling up natural resources with virtually no concern for future generations. What a new perspective can do, however, is alter who we think ourselves to be in the face of these intertwined difficulties. We can shift from being the victims of these problems to becoming the pioneers of a sustainable and meaningful future for ourselves and our planet.

We have come to a great choice-point in our journey. Although humans have been faced with challenges throughout history, we have never before been confronted with a challenge together. Our time is unique in one crucial respect: the circle has closed-there is nowhere to escape. For the first time in our history, the entire human population is confronted with a predicament whose solution will require us to work together in a common enterprise that respects our rich diversity.  

11 Aug 2003 @ 16:07 by Baalberith @67.114.89.98 : The heart of the matter:
"...rather than just going for making money, I'd like to do things I care about and that make a difference. And I'd like to be paid well, as sort of a secondary effect. But I've kind of been idling for a number of years. Despite working hard and accomplishing many things in several different fields, I somehow haven't yet really gotten around to the stuff [I feel] I'm here on this planet to do. If there's a chance that I'm about to, I don't know. I'm trying to be open to it..." Ming the Mechanic: Work, 8.11.03  

13 Aug 2003 @ 16:52 by The Power for the People @67.114.89.98 : VOTE - BECOME AN ADVOCATE
Support candidates who pledge to protect the environment. Once a candidate is elected, monitor his or her voting record; keep in regular contact through testimony, letters, e-mail and telephone.  Don't ever believe that your vote won't make a difference. John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960 by the tiny fraction of a single vote per voting precinct.

Become an advocate and tell your family and friends about the crisis. Do it now. Do it with a sense of urgency.  

14 Aug 2003 @ 12:07 by Katlin Zweep Grade 6 Stoughton Schools @67.114.89.98 : Is it too late to save the earth?
The Earth is dying! No, not today or even next week. It may take all of our lifetime, but it is slowly dying. Have you ever not seen pollution as you were taking a walk, riding in your car or spending the day at any event where the public is? Probably not. It's so bad we may not have a very bright future and worse, our grandchildren will even have a more unpredictable and scary future.  

14 Aug 2003 @ 14:01 by synEarth @67.114.89.98 : Eyes wide shut
Were we governed by reason, we would be on the barricades today, dragging the drivers of Range Rovers and Nissan Patrols out of their seats, occupying and shutting down the coal-burning power stations, bursting in upon the Blairs' retreat from reality in Barbados and demanding a reversal of economic life as dramatic as the one we bore when we went to war with Hitler. Instead, we whine about the heat and thumb through the brochures for holidays in Iceland. The future has been laid out before us, but the deep eye with which we place ourselves on Earth will not see it.
[link]  

14 Aug 2003 @ 14:27 by Megan @67.114.89.98 : Ecovillage
This story on Living On Earth made me feel a bit more hopeful - Ecovillage. It's about a community in the middle of L.A. who have "turned a forty-unit apartment building in LA into a place where neighbors plant vegetables together, create and install solar panels, agree not to own cars, and even use odorless composting toilets." The community is even the focus of international tourists.  

14 Aug 2003 @ 15:50 by Utopian EcoVillage network @67.114.89.98 : Tropical Paradise in Ecuador
We are an intentional community with a self-sufficient goal; we are seeking people who have a strong desire to live communally. We are part of a network of intentional communities throughout the world linked with similar values to support each other for the creation of a new society. The basic intention of the Utopian EcoVillage Network is to be a pilot model demonstration of how to live in a real New World consciousness of sharing on all levels: financially, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically.  

18 Aug 2003 @ 12:18 by Iblis @67.114.89.98 : Eco-hermits
The eco-villagers look a lot like eco-hermits to me. I am not sure that buying oneself a piece of Eden and founding a "self-sustaining" community AWAY from the madness is really the solution to bringing about the kind of "New World consciousness" that will help address in any major significant way the most very pressing issues the world is facing. I understand the appeal of a return to Nature for those who can afford it (land ownership is unfortunately a luxury inaccessible to the great multitude) but, well-intended as they might be, it seems that those communities are curled in a phoetal position, shutting the rest of the world out, just hoping that the problems will go away.

"...All the while, the decline of Earth's ecosystems has continued unabated. What will it take for us to get serious about saving our environment? When will environmentalism move from being a philosophy promoted by a passionate minority to a way of life that governs mainstream behavior and policy?" - Condition Critical  

18 Aug 2003 @ 12:44 by Daniel @67.114.89.98 : Misguided environmental policies
Americans need to listen intently to those balmy Arctic winds, see the water rising, and then turn a cold, pragmatic eye toward our Washington leadership to decide just how much Republican environmental policies contradict clear messages relayed by the earth. It could be that our leaders are viewing the world through a distorted lens, and that their corporate worldview and sometimes their fundamentalist Christian faith are guiding them to an interpretation of reality based not on scientific fact, but on dogma. –Glenn Scherer–  

17 Jan 2007 @ 15:41 by Hanae @68.164.57.94 : Aux Arbres Citoyens

This video clip by Yannick Noah says it all.

Le ciment dans les plaines
Coule jusqu'aux montagnes
Poison dans les fontaines,
Dans nos campagnes

De cyclones en rafales
Notre histoire prend l'eau
Reste notre idéal
"Faire les beaux"

S'acheter de l'air en barre
Remplir la balance :
Quelques pétrodollars
Contre l'existence

De l'équateur aux pôles,
Ce poids sur nos épaules
De squatters éphémeres...
Maintenant c'est plus drôle

Puisqu'il faut changer les choses
Aux arbres citoyens !
Il est grand temps qu'on propose
Un monde pour demain !

Aux arbres citoyens
Quelques baffes à prendre
La veille est pour demain
Des baffes à rendre

Faire tenir debout
Une armée de roseaux
Plus personne à genoux
Fais passer le mot

C'est vrai la terre est ronde
Mais qui viendra nous dire
Qu'elle l'est pour tout le monde...
Et les autres à venir...

Puisqu'il faut changer les choses
Aux arbres citoyens !
Il est grand temps qu'on propose
Un monde pour demain !

Puisqu'il faut changer les choses
Aux arbres citoyens !
Il est grand temps qu'on s'oppose
Un monde pour demain !


Plus le temps de savoir à qui la faute
De compter la chance ou les autres
Maintenant on se bat
Avec toi moi j'y crois

Puisqu'il faut changer les choses
Aux arbres citoyens !
Il est grand temps qu'on propose
Un monde pour demain !  

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