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(17,796 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,549 posts)Were going away. Pack your shit, folks. Were going away. And we wont leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam
The planetll be here and well be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planetll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
--George Carlin--
Full quote at http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/251836-we-re-so-self-important-everybody-s-going-to-save-something-now-save
hedda_foil
(16,380 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,549 posts)hedda_foil
(16,380 posts)We never seem to learn what our wise ones have tried to teach us.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Do you know...when my now late 40 year old sons were in their 20's, they both, independently of each other, stated they were not going to have children.
And they have stuck to their word.
Because, even back then, these intelligent clever young men foresaw our species' self destructive tendencies.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)I'm like them....I knew even when I was little that I wasn't interested in babies, having kids, all that stuff...and that there were too many of us.....that's at least 50 years ago......
I remember having an awareness hit me too, when I was maybe 12-13? I don't know why or where it came from, but suddenly I thought, Someday, the corporations are going to be the real threat.
And then, I dropped it, cuz I was just a kid, didn't know what to do with that thought, and I had more immediate concerns.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)They are now in their 40's, doing well.
But ya know....I was lucky there were effective birth control options, because I never wanted more than 2.
Back in the day,( 1970) society was not supportive of women who did not want to breed.
Doctors would not give a married woman a tubal ligation unless she had 4-5 kids
before the age of 30
and passed a psychiatric exam
and TWO doctors plus her husband all agreed she could have the operation.( altho it was a minor operation by then).
True story.
But a husband could waltz down to his doc and get a vasectomy on his lunch break without his wife even knowing before hand.
Ask me how I know this..................
mountain grammy
(26,693 posts)hopemountain
(3,919 posts)because the very meek mycellium can break it all down along with radiation. it will be millions of years, of course to rid the planet of our destructive footprints and perhaps return to paradise - and the planet will continue to evolve.
mountain grammy
(26,693 posts)it will actually be intelligent.
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)Both for itself and for other species around it.
mountain grammy
(26,693 posts)appalachiablue
(41,261 posts)hopemountain
(3,919 posts)when arrogance, impatience, loss of respect for other life forms, greed, and loss of touch with other senses predominate.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)I mourn more for them.
mountain grammy
(26,693 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)One of my favorites> The adorable little Pika.
.
.
.
.
AngryDem001
(684 posts)irisblue
(33,080 posts)appalachiablue
(41,261 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Where do you find them? I don't believe I have ever seen one?
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)G_j
(40,372 posts)and once they are gone, they are gone...
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)What we're doing is nothing compared to the Permian-Triassic extinction, and that was the introduction to the mesozoic.
Our civilizations will collapse. Humanity will keep going for a few more hundred thousand years after that - long enough to see what comes of the world we created. Our descendants will return to hunter-gatherer life, and their greatest fear may be packs of wolf-sized sabertoothed rats.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)I mourn, as well.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2015, 12:51 AM - Edit history (1)
We were too simple to fight against nature. Now we can actually change the landscape of our ecosystem. Mankind will die off one day, it doesn't seem like we have the ability to learn from our mistakes or when we do and it is inconvenient - we just look the other way.
For such an intelligent species, we sure are stupid and short sighted.
appalachiablue
(41,261 posts)semanticwikiian
(69 posts)about how it's happening, not so much via CO2 but through CH4 (methane) geologic emissions... Lots of earthquakes are happening now... suggests we have a mere 12 years or so before it all hits the fan (e.g., temperatures that won't support photosynthesis).
Duppers
(28,137 posts)The earth has a cancer and it is us.
I fear for the babies being born now. This is so sad.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Duppers
(28,137 posts)Let me see now....who would I ask?
Art, you cheeky guy. Hope you're well.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)that if he ever comes back to Japan, I'm just 20 minutes away from his old haunt
Duppers
(28,137 posts)The next trip to Asia will be to S. Korea in 2017, with a side trip back to China. If he comes back to Japan, I'll be along and we'll give you advance warning.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)In other words, not exactly a quality source of information. (For one, they incorrectly stated that there is 100 times more methane now, than in the Permian; when in fact, there is far *less* methane that actually exists now than what did then) EOM.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)"The earth is adaptable; humans can do anything, and the earth and humans will still be okay."
We absolutely can destroy aspects of the ecosystem that we totally depend upon. We can add enough CO2 to the atmosphere to ruin things for human existence.
Yes -- the earth has been hotter than it is today. Yes -- the earth has been a far more hostile environment than it is today. BUT, there were mass extinctions....
pansypoo53219
(21,021 posts)soon babes will have to be kept off the ground or they will suffocate.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)I think in the end, we're all going to drown from the melting ice.
albino65
(484 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)New and wonderful life forms evolved from the few survivors. These evolved into all the life we see today.
There probably won't be any humans but there will be something else.
hunter
(38,362 posts)...we humans are nothing more than a peculiar layer of trash in the geological record and the earth again begins to enjoy many diverse and wonderful life forms.
What bothers me today is that we are not the only intelligent species of life on earth. Parrots, Crows, Ravens, Elephants, Cetaceans, Wolves... none of them deserve the shit storms we've created, nor do our own children and grandchildren.
And we are just beginning to recognize the very different sort of "intelligence" and responsiveness, even cooperative behaviors, of plants and fungi.
Some magic like fusion power or nuclear power isn't going to save us. Our only hope is compassion for others, both human and non-human, education, and limiting our own population.
We have all the tools we need to live lightly upon this earth now: Free public education, the scientific method, equal rights for all, birth control, organic farming, solar power, generous welfare systems... It's time we started using them.
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)By killing us off quickly.
Wars, increased poverty, ecosystem destruction, ignorance, unsustainable birthrates, social system collapse and resulting chaos, violence and deaths.....
appalachiablue
(41,261 posts)like feudal times or third world areas today, sorry to say. Sometimes maroon societies evolve from desperate people separating off into crude, survival colonies. Typically located in caves, hills or mountains for protection, like African Americans in Jamaica and Georgia and Cherokees in Appalachia during the Trail of Tears time.
spanone
(136,010 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)Thespian2
(2,741 posts)but Gaia is correct. Perhaps homo "sapiens" never deserved the planet earth.
olddots
(10,237 posts)a floating mass of plastic waste the size of Australia floating on a dead ocean
I give Earth 2000 years the rate its going,hope I'm wrong .
cui bono
(19,926 posts)lpbk2713
(42,785 posts)And we are supposed to be the "intelligent" ones.
Having thumbs isn't everything that matters.
blm
(113,157 posts).
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Whether or not some of us may like it or not, not even the worst plausible scenario for climate change could ever wipe out all of humanity, for better or for worse(YMMV). Even Toba couldn't *quite* manage it(at least 50k-100k survivors out of several millions).
Still, though, I admit this was well done as a piece of art. Kudos to the artist for that.
ffr
(22,684 posts)Along with some dill and various other flowers, but no pesticides or herbicides will be used.
Trying to do our part to take back the destruction of our environment we helped contribute to unknowingly. Have to start somewhere.
Cha
(298,313 posts)AngryDem001
(684 posts)When Mother Nature decides she's gonna kick your ass, it's only a question of how hard that kick will be.
Lancero
(3,024 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Tough truth for some to hear, but it happens to be so.
BumRushDaShow
(130,390 posts)Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)We need more coal mining!
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Duppers
(28,137 posts)"There is room in the world, no doubt, and even in old countries, for a great increase of population, supposing the arts of life to go on improving, and capital to increase. But even if innocuous, I confess I see very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary to enable mankind to obtain, in the greatest degree, all the advantages both of co-operation and of social intercourse, has, in all the most populous countries, been attained. If the earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger but not a better or a happier population, I sincerely hope, for the sake of posterity, that they will be content to be stationary, long before necessity compels them to it..."
- John Stuart Mill
Principles of Political Economy (1848)
Necessity did compel us but it fell on muffed ears and is now too late.
Delphinus
(11,851 posts)says an awful lot.
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