this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
183 points (97.9% liked)

science

14674 readers
840 users here now

just science related topics. please contribute

note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry

Rule 1) Be kind.

lemmy.world rules: https://mastodon.world/about

I don't screen everything, lrn2scroll

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

flowers near the poles.

This is not the first time.

Antarctica has had a huge variety of life in the past during warm periods.

Earth is a grave

No, earth is doing what it has always done. Responding to change during an extinction event. Life has caused an extinction event in the past during the great oxygenation event. The only difference this time is that the life-form causing the extinction event (humans) are aware of what is happening.

I am not happy about any of this, it is a tragedy caused by humans.

But the earth will recover in time, geological time. Life on earth will continue. It just won't be the same species that were here before. Whether humans make it through all this is uncertain. The cyanobacteria that caused the oxygenation still exist but only in tiny numbers compared to when they also dominated the planet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You’re severely downplaying (not even mentioning) the unprecedented by an order of magnitudes speed at which we’ve bought about the end of this epoch.

Nothing about this is natural or cyclical.

[–] Pipoca 5 points 1 year ago

The planet has survived sudden and dramatic climate shifts before.

For example, the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs caused years or decades of impact winter. The planet survived fine. The non-avian dinosaurs didn't, but the planet did.

That comment isn't saying that what's going on now is a normal cycle, but rather the natural response to a non-normal event.