Nature Bats Last
Published on Mar 20, 2019
www.guymcpherson.com www.onlyloveremains.org Eight paths to functional extinction: https://guymcpherson.com/2019/03/edge… The hubris of humans extends to their assumed eternal presence on this planet. Several other iterations of our hominid species have come and gone extinct, some quite rapidly. There is no reason we modern humans also will not go extinct. This could happen quite rapidly. Here are the examples of RAPID extinctions of other animals mentioned in the video. The Bellinger River turtle was saved from extinction by zoos.
This situation, living in a zoo to avoid extinction, is known as functional extinction. https://medium.com/taronga-conservati… https://www.sciencedirect.com/science… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling…
Within the Bellinger drainage, a very restricted range, the species is widely distributed and locally abundant. Current threats to its persistence include habitat modification and loss of native riparian vegetation, associated turbidification and sedimentation, predation by the introduced European fox, and competition with the recently introduced turtle Emydura macquarii. http://dmns.planmylegacy.org/why-we-g… n 1952, the Bárcena volcano erupted, spewing millions of tons of ash into the sky, blanketing the entire island and laying waste to all life. An account of the first visit after the volcano reads like a naturalist’s account of the aftermath of Pompeii. Nearly 20,000 seabird skeletons were observed poking out of the ash. While tragic and sad, the Bárcena eruption did not mark the end of San Benedicto’s story. One year after the eruption, seabirds returned to nest. Today vegetation has reclaimed much of the island, and the number of nesting seabirds equals or in some estimates exceeds the numbers prior to the eruption. So although San Benedicto Island lives on as a paradise for seabirds, it lives on without its music. The rock wren was lost that day. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/a…
On September 1, 1914, an old, trembling passenger pigeon named Martha died at Cincinnati Zoo. With her demise, her entire species slid into extinction. But in many ways, the species was already gone, for a solitary passenger pigeon is almost not a passenger pigeon at all. This is an animal that existed in gestalt. Its essence was in the flock. Simon Pokagon, a Potawatomi author and leader, described them as “the grandest waterfall of America” and their sound as that of “distant thunder” or “an army of horses laden with sleigh bells.” “Men still live who, in their youth, remember pigeons; trees still live who, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a few decades hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know.” —Aldo Leopold, “On a Monument to the Pigeon,” 1947 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo
The first recorded mention of the dodo was by Dutch sailors in 1598. In the following years, the bird was hunted by sailors and invasive species, while its habitat was being destroyed. The last widely accepted sighting of a dodo was in 1662. Its extinction was not immediately noticed, and some considered it to be a mythical creature.
See:
- James Hansen, Ph.D. – The Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity – Offstage
- James Hansen’s 1988 testimony after 30 years. How did he do?
- Remember When James Hansen was a Legitimate Scientist?
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