this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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Showerthoughts
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In the grand scale of the universe we aren't even a blip, any "permanent" damage we cause will be reversed over hundreds of thousands or millions of years after we've wiped ourselves out.
And even if there was some kind of damage that couldn't be reversed, the next cycle of life would just adapt to whatever the issue is
I'm not really worried about the planet. I'm worried about us.
I mean the earth has already survived having the first moon crash into it, as well as a giant meteor that caused an ice age. We have t quite gotten to that level, yet.
It's something people don't realize. We may be a scourge on the Earth, but we're still nowhere even near the top of the list of worst things to happen to this planet.
As the other reply brought up, Theia crashing into Earth. Flood basalt events. The Chicxulub impact.
We may be able to cause some real awful shit, but we still are nothing compared to what the forces of nature can produce. And just to clarify, I'm not saying this to in any way downplay the seriousness of climate change, or that we should do nothing about it.
Been seeing a lot of "mass extinctions are fine, earth will recover" bullshit lately, it's making me suspicious that this is the next big oil psyop.
Oh yeah it's all good, I just talked about millions of years of recovery and the extinction of humans, but yeah I'm a shill for big oil.
What are you smoking? I want some
Yeah "earth will recover once all humans die" doesn't make me any less worried for humanity.
Humanity aside, exterminating thousands of species of animals is just bad, not for any practical effect it has on humanity or "nature" but just because it, in itself, is morally bad.
The argument I've heard is that new species will evolve to fill new niches and one day earth will host the same biodiversity again.
I can't say I find that one anymore convincing. I'm with you on this, it's pretty gross how blasé some people are about dragging countless other species into extinction along with us.
I've seen it a lot recently.
Person 1: nature will recover, but humanity will go extinct.
Person 2: actually, humanity won't go extinct [list of information about humanity's resiliency]
Person 1 (or 3rd party reading): oh cool, not that big a deal then
Lost in this discussion: mass extinctions bad