Re:Antarctic CO2 Hit 400 PPM for First Time in 4M Years
by hyperpallium on Friday June 17, 2016 @01:20AM
(#11920822)
Earth can cope, we mightn't.
Nature looks very harmonious to us, but we only see the sustainable species (alive now, and very few are fossilised and found). Many many species must have evolved that created conditions unfavourable to themselves - we only see the ones that didn't. (Organisms have an effect on their environment, favourable, unfavourable or neutral). Consider a plant that encourages swampy conditions. If it thrives in those conditions, great. If it doesn't, it will evolve itself away.
There's speculation that Earth's oxygen atmosphere destroyed the life that created it. Though most changes and extinctions are local.
Intelligence is such a dramatic, effectful evolution, it may take several iterations before
a sustainable version arises (if possible). Perhaps this has happened on Earth already.
In the Drake equation, L is very low (how long technological civilizations usually last).
Nature looks very harmonious to us, but we only see the sustainable species (alive now, and very few are fossilised and found). Many many species must have evolved that created conditions unfavourable to themselves - we only see the ones that didn't. (Organisms have an effect on their environment, favourable, unfavourable or neutral). Consider a plant that encourages swampy conditions. If it thrives in those conditions, great. If it doesn't, it will evolve itself away.
There's speculation that Earth's oxygen atmosphere destroyed the life that created it. Though most changes and extinctions are local.
Intelligence is such a dramatic, effectful evolution, it may take several iterations before a sustainable version arises (if possible). Perhaps this has happened on Earth already.
In the Drake equation, L is very low (how long technological civilizations usually last).