"The romantic contrast between modern industry that “destroys nature” and our ancestors who “lived in harmony with nature” is groundless. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of life." can you guess who the author is?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I enjoyed the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and he provides a panoramic overview of Man in history. I cannot help but have some unease that he too is 'locked in' to a particular view of evolution. Personally, I cannot rule out the possibility that we have long had interactions with interplanetary beings. Our apparent universe may be one of many universes. In a way, whatever we can imagine is possible and so far, most of us have not been able to imagine much and generally vilify those who do imagine.
Twanee
Level 4
Apr 21, 2018
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I enjoyed the book Sapiens by Tubal Noah Harari and he provides a panoramic overview of Man in history. I cannot help but have some unease that he too is 'locked in' to a particular view of evolution. Personally, I cannot rule out the possibility that we have long had interactions with interplanetary beings. Our apparent universe may be one of many universes. In a way, whatever we can imagine is possible and so far, most of us have not been able to imagine much and generally vilify those who do imagine.
Twanee
Level 4
Apr 21, 2018
0
Reading Lews and Clark's recount of their trip to the west coast of the USA was an eye opener. The tribes were dependent on their territory, native Americans with good territories versus those who had to scrape to get by on marginal land. How they lived, spent their winters grouped together in tents with all the animals. Pretty amazing, not very romantic but also not bad depending the draw of the dice. The tribes along the Pacific Coast seemed to have the best of it, with plenty of dried salmon stored away to kept them going.
cava
Level 7
Apr 20, 2018
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LeighShelton
Level 8
Apr 20, 2018
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Bah Humbug! Calculated how? Compaired to what?
Have we in current society been "good" residents of this planet - in general - no.
However, to paint every culture, ever, through out time with the same damning brush is rediculous and pointless as is just says we are all horrible, we have always been horrible, and we will probably always be horrible.
Donna_I
Level 8
Apr 20, 2018
0
Considering that we weren't around for the previous five mass extintion events, I find it dubious to consider our species so "effective". Not that we should try harder or anything like that.
Hicks66
Level 7
Apr 20, 2018
0
Au contrair...the extinction of the North American megafauna (Stright horned-Bison, Tule Elk, Mastodons, etc.) has been attributed to early Native American over-hunting by many scientists.
@dahermit drop in the bucket compared to any, yes any, of the previous mass extintion events.
Ordovician–Silurian Extinction. Around 439 million years ago, 86% of life on Earth was wiped out. ...
Late Devonian, at least 70% of all species
Permian-Triassic, killed 57% of all families, 83% of all genera and 90% to 96% of all species,
Triassic-Jurassic, about 23% of all families, 48% of all genera (20% of marine families and 55% of marine genera) and 70% to 75% of all species became extinct
Cretaceous-Paleogene about 17% of all families, 50% of all genera and 75% of all species became extinct.
More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct.
@dahermit And what I'm disputing is the use of superlatives in the original quote. There have been far more effective extinctive pressures in the past. We're bad because we seem to be the only ones keeping track. I dunno. Maybe the prevailing opinion in this thread run counter to my optimism. What I am hoping to illustrate is that this planet's ecosystem has rebounded from far worse that what "man" has inflicted and will continue to do so. Whether our species is around to enjoy that recovery is another matter entirely. As is the possibility that we do not deserve it.
@icolan I would say I'm comparing grenades to forest fires. And humans can be considered a global catastrophe. I would also postulate that we will die out before sterilizing the Earth. I imagine a geologically brief bottleneck in genetic diversity and things will pick up where they left off before the descent of man. Our species isn't really that big a deal.
The ONLY mass extinction that is an issue relative to us is the current one. The other five mass extinctions are no longer relative.
I just happen to have purchased "Sapiens". I look foward to this read.
JAlejandro
Level 2
Apr 20, 2018
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ha, it could have been me from the sentiment, but as already mentioned it was Yuval Noah Harari.
Rugglesby
Level 8
Apr 20, 2018
1
Yeah, just finished Sapiens and onto Homo Deus. Sapiens is an unbelievable book that everyone should read I think.
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