Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species extinction

Re:Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species ... by hinkley on Monday September 14, 2020 @12:52PM (#24472324)

I don't think we understand redundancy as well as we say we do. We have backups and alternatives within cultural and civil systems and we often try to cut them back.

Different organisms have come up with different solutions to the same problem, and because of that they can break in different situations. The 'service' they provide will be affected differently by an environmental shortage or excess. If twenty microbes are responsible for recycling organic matter and dust or drought or some chemical affects 10 of them, the others will expand to pick up some of the slack.

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Re:Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species ... by anigbrowl on Monday September 14, 2020 @02:46PM (#24473612)

Indeed. Often the drive for efficiency is rooted in the desire to extract economic value that seems to be going unclaimed or wasted (in the present) without regard for structural utility (over time).

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Re:Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species ... by framecowbird on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:54PM (#24474365)

The risk is how long that takes. Sure, other microbes pick up the slack, but when? A hundred years? A thousand? Millions?

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Re:Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species ... by hinkley on Monday September 14, 2020 @08:54PM (#24476823)

Oh I'm talking about existing populations. If you're talking about for instance, "what will eat all of this plastic?" then I agree with you. There is nothing, never has been, and we don't know when there will be something we can happily coexist with.

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