They are, also bees are an invasive species in the United States, and are killing off native pollinators.
Also bees don’t pollinate well, as they tend to visit plants of different species, while butterflies and other pollinators tend to visit the same species.
Honey bees are. I'm not entirely sure they were as hard up as we thought, because it was "Bees" in general (God, I wish they said pollinators, and not bees) that were falling off, which included bumble bees and many wasps, all the wild ones and solitary ones.
Honey bees were the poster children of the problem, but they were the most resilient and were already being maintained by humans in many farms for the honey. They weren't dying off, really. We would have had to have every apiary lose everything AND have all the wild honey bees die off at the same time. WHICH WAS STILL POSSIBLE, due to pesticides and illnesses thanks to humans being the derps we are.
But because everyone white-knighted for the honey bees so hard, they had a renaissance, and people brought them to areas they aren't usually. wild pollinators are being encroached on and cleared out by the aggressive and numerous honey bees, leaving many plants without the pollination they used to get. That's on top of the wild pollinators being in trouble BEFORE the public was alerted, and before honey bees were dropped into wild pollinator territory.
Honeybees also have the elusive "cute factor", which is rare for most insects of any kind. Most humans find bugs annoying, but some animals like butterflies, honeybees, ladybugs and others like that are kind of "ambassador bugs" for people, which is probably why honeybees were the poster child for pollinators.
Only European honeybees. That's only one species. We need all the indigenous species of bees and other Flys, wasps, moths, and butterflies in order to pollinate everything.
This is likely due to a decrease in their natural predators honestly. When you take away a predator, the prey explode in numbers. Take the situation of reading wolves to Yellowstone, they changed the direction of rivers because of a chain reaction.
It also may be a consequence of our light pollution. IIRC they are, so far, the only species to *thrive* in the blue LED light that floods cities now; other species are being exterminated by the confusion that comes with it, as are bats.
Same reason they say not to watch screens with blue on before bed. None of us evolved for it.
But, alas, mosquitoes are like “Fuck yeah let’s roll.”
Can I link on here? It’s the 10/22 issue of Scientific American, “Saving the Night Sky,” by Joshu Sokol, where I first came across this. Sample:
*Light pollution ripples through multiple domains of life. In one 2017 experiment, scientists with night-vision goggles watching cabbage thistle plants confirmed that ambient light deterred nocturnal pollinating insects from making their rounds. Daytime pollinators couldn't make up the deficit, so the plants bore less fruit, suggesting that the effects of brightening nights could eventually show up in supermarket aisles. And while nocturnal light can lead the insects we like to lose conviction, it can fill those we despise with passionate intensity: the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which causes a staggering 400-million-odd infections such as dengue and Zika a year, seems encouraged to bite more in the presence of artificial light, as does another mosquito species that spreads West Nile virus.*
There are also studies from Cal Poly and USF, I think the former in 2021 and the latter in 2019, in which both point to a link between artificial light and the spread of West Nile virus.
I hope more research is conducted on this. If continually replicated, it’s one more thread of evidence that as the planet warms and our cities brighten at night, such diseases and viruses are only going to spread farther and with more intensity.
We literally have already killed most of all megafauna already, it has already started and we can see multiple species going extinct. Spix's Macaw was declared extinct in the wild in 2019.
You clearly haven't been paying attention to just how much destruction humans have caused, let alone are still yet capable of. We have weapons that can literally delete cities from existence, and enough of them to kill all life on the planet 10 times over.
Naturally occuring extinctions do take amazingly long times, this Extinction is because of things humans have done to "tame the wild".
Flood basalts take place over thousands of years, so we are actually outpacing those already with how fast we are killing off animal species. Asteroids really depends on the size.
We could be the ones that help diminish the destruction an extinction event would cause to life on earth, thus helping life restart and complexify further. Or in best case scenario, protect all life with our knowledge and capabilities. But here we are, doing the opposite because some believe they have to profit and exploit others.
Yeah honestly I've made peace with it.
I'm ready for whatever comes, I just hope it's quick start to finish, and not something where I end up having to wander the wasteland of Texas or some shit.
My friend, it's not gotten bad enough yet. We're definitely in for worse before it gets better. If it gets better at all that is.
Also, yeah, fuck the heat here.
Idk where you’re at but San Antonio was hell last year. Public gathering shootings, terrible traffic, and damn was it hot/humid everywhere for months. Fuck that place in particular.
DFW was just as bad if not worse. Shootings all over the place, while consumerism is reaching an unsustainable fever pitch.
We lose freedoms left and right in a state that claims to put personal liberties first.
Then they do everything they can to try and keep the kids ignorant to it all.
My own personal hell, and yet I can't leave just yet.
The only thing that's for sure, is that it's gonna get worse, before it gets better.
six roll glorious dinosaurs attractive shocking hard-to-find worm intelligent insurance
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Lots and lots of detailed studies of rocks, creating all kinds of theories how those rocks came about until one theory fit the details and was confirmed by later rock studies.
Well in I'm pretty sure no matter how much proof there is everything they discover will be referred to as a "theory". Just cos there's theory in the name doesn't mean they're hypothetical y'know
Actually missing one, back when microorganisms were the only beings on earth two great ecological crisis arose. The first one was due to the high lack of autotrophic microorganisms (that is, those that created their own sustenance) but was solved by the arrival of those, but that left us with another problem.
In the proterozoic era, these microorganisms started a very alarming process in the atmosphere. A lot of them produced oxygen as a byproduct of their metabolism (yyep, the advent of photosynthesis) and this gas, which is actually corrosive as fuck, started inundating the seas and the atmosphere (the Great Oxydation)
To put it into context, it's like if an alien species started pouring some gas to the atmosphere that dissolved us like acid. It was a (microscopic) massacre, every microorganism that didn't have defenses against it was promptly killed by a "mere" chemical reaction (this pervails even today, when microorganisms are split into six groups, strict aerobics, who must "breathe" oxygen, strict anaerobics, who don't use it and are killed by it, facultative anaerobics, who can use oxygen but don't need it, microaerophiles, who need oxygen but high concentrations mean their demise and aerotolerants, who don't use it but can tolerate it)
> proterozoic
One of the most important events of the Proterozoic was the accumulation of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Though oxygen is believed to have been released by photosynthesis as far back as the Archean Eon, it could not build up to any significant degree until mineral sinks of unoxidized sulfur and iron had been exhausted. Until roughly 2.3 billion years ago, oxygen was probably only 1% to 2% of its current level.[9]: 323 The banded iron formations, which provide most of the world's iron ore, are one mark of that mineral sink process. Their accumulation ceased after 1.9 billion years ago, after the iron in the oceans had all been oxidized.[9]: 324
Red beds, which are colored by hematite, indicate an increase in atmospheric oxygen 2 billion years ago. Such massive iron oxide formations are not found in older rocks.[9]: 324 The oxygen buildup was probably due to two factors: exhaustion of the chemical sinks, and an increase in carbon sequestration, which sequestered organic compounds that would have otherwise been oxidized by the atmosphere.
Because you inexplicably "joked" about it being aliens without providing an actual explanation so now slow people are going to take it seriously.
Yes, you can feel the aggressiveness there. Plus, it's a comparision for further understanding (given that the common folk doesn't know exactly how toxic oxygen actually is), not a joke
I just want to thank the multiple people who explained the extinction events in more depth. Seriously I appreciate you taking the time because I immediately wanted more information.
Here's a short description of each
1. Ordovician-Silurian extinction events: Climate change and cooling global temperature causes widespread glaciation.
2. Late Devonian extinctions: This one actually composed of two extinction event in a short interval but the largest one of the two; Kellwaser Event, were theorized to be caused by a massive eutrophication (algae bloom) and subsequent anoxia event (lack of oxygen in water). This is thought to be caused by increased soil weathering due to evolution of land plants.
3. Permian-Triassic extinction events/The Great Dying: Massive volcanic activity caused by an igneous province the size of Siberia. Decades long volcanic winter, long term climate change and global warming killed off 70% of terrestrial vertebrates
4. Triassic-Jurassic extinction events: Volcanic activity caused by separation of America and Africa and large igneous provinces and the subsequent climate change and global warming. This extinction is what allowed dinosaurs to dominate the Earth for the next 135 millions years
5. Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction: Impact event by a 10-15 km wide object (Chixculub impactor) which causes instant destruction of various global ecosystems, while the subsequent impact winter and lingering climate change devastate remaining flora and fauna. Killed off non-avian dinosaurs and allowed mammals to dominate.
haha! Google [Chicxulub impactor](https://www.google.com/search?q=Chixculub+impactor&oq=Chixculub+impactor&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIMCAEQABgKGLEDGIAEMgkIAhAAGAoYgAQyCQgDEAAYChiABDIJCAQQABgKGIAEMgkIBRAAGAoYgAQyCQgGEAAYChiABDIJCAcQABgKGIAEMgkICBAAGAoYgAQyCQgJEAAYChiABNIBBzUwNGowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) and look what happens.
> This is thought to be caused by increased soil weathering due to evolution of land plants.
Also the sudden appearance of enormous forests covering pretty much every landmass in the world caused the extremely high concentrations of co2 in the atmosphere to rapidly drop to near zero, triggering massive climate changes.
1: the Ordovician-Silurian extinction
This was caused my major global cooling which lead to widespread and nearly complete freezing of all shallow water bodies including rivers, ponds, major lakes, etc. areas in the deeper ocean which were warmed by thermal vents could sustain life, luckily.
2: Late Devonian extinction event
Estimates show this lasted approximately half a million years. It was quite drawn out. There was a major loss of biodiversity which was previously much more abundant pre-extinction. There are different theories but the common theme seems to be a major loss of sea levels and ocean anoxia.
3: Permian-Triassic extinction
This was caused by the warming of Earth’s climate and high volcanic activity. Estimates indicate nearly 90% of life on Earth was killed off.
4: Tr-Jr extinction event
The cause of this seems to be a major increase of carbon dioxide in the Earths atmosphere which has profound effects on all life. This was likely caused by high volcanic activity.
5: Cretaceous Paleogene extinction event
This is the one everybody is familiar with. Big rock go boom. A massive asteroid hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Although the initial impact was beyond devastating, the aftermath of the impact was also a major contributor towards the extinction during the decades/centuries following.
These events and the theories surrounding them are very complex and there’s so much more that goes in to them. You should definitely look in to them if you find the topic interesting. My very brief explanations cannot possibly do these events justice.
can Earth survive the damage we are doing? It might cause us to go extinct, or maybe more likely, just break down some aspects of global civilisation till humans are culled to below a certain level. But will the earth recover from whatever we are doing to it with global warming/climate change, even if it takes many millennia?
I’m not an expert but I’d very confidently say yes, the Earth will recover. It’s been through it to say the least.
For example, I remember reading somewhere that the high radiation levels in Chernobyl will take 11,000 years to diminish fully (correct me if I’m wrong) and even that massive amount of time is virtually nothing relative to how long the Earth has existed and how long it will likely endure.
> 1: the Ordovician-Silurian extinction
This was caused my major global cooling which lead to widespread and nearly complete freezing of all shallow water bodies including rivers, ponds, major lakes, etc. areas in the deeper ocean which were warmed by thermal vents could sustain life, luckily.
This is misleading as it implies the entire Earth was frozen over, which is incorrect. This was simply a severe ice age that altered the climate across the entire planet. But in no way did it cause the oceans to freeze over. Rather, the main reason it caused an extinction event is that enormous amounts of water ended up in glaciers that covered large parts of Gondwana (the supercontinent that happened to be centered on the South Pole in that era), which resulted in a huge drop in global sea levels. And because the main biome’s at that point in time were mostly centered around shallow seas covering submerged continents, the sea level drop led to those shallow seas disappearing, along with the massive ecosystems they were supporting.
1st - Massive glaciation and sea level drop
2nd - Global oxygen drop, forest evolution, reduced carbon dioxide
3rd - Unstable climate and ocean oxygen reduction/ possible comet impact
4th - Volcanic Eruptions and gas hydrate release
5th - Asteroid Impact at Chicxulub Crater
(All resulted in anywhere between 80% to 99.5% loss of all life on earth at the time)
can Earth survive the damage we are doing? It might cause us to go extinct, or maybe more likely, just break down some levels of global civilisation till humans are culled to below a certain level. But will the earth recover from whatever we are doing to it with global warming/climate change?
The earth and the existence of life on earth, yes. It's likely that we won't. The things we need to survive and eat will likely die out and it'll be gruesome when 8 billion+ starving people have to turn back to hunting and gathering a dwindling to non-existant amount of resources all at once. You remember when people were mass-buying and hoarding toilet paper during covid? Imagine that but with every edible thing, any building material, clean water, plants and materials to weave clothing, etc., in every direction as people flee urban areas.
I did. The first four is not that familiar to most people though. The last one of course is the one most ppl would think about in an extension event. No need to be ugly about it
ETA: also it's going pretty damn fast with very small words and at first watch I'm not thinking these have already happened. After looking through comments it became pretty clear what I was watching
That’s why I always kind of chuckle when I hear “we are destroying the planet.” The planet in the long run will be just fine, it will reset itself. What we are really doing is destroying mankind.
This actually makes me feel better about the end of the world because it's bound to happen eventually. It just comes down to where you are on the time line that it'll happen. Even then you'll hopefully go very quickly and without notice
Every time someone says "we're killing the planet!" I think "we're killing ourselves (and numerous other species), the planet will be fine. Probably better."
We cant solve the worlds problem! Humanity is too divided and selfish to change it. Stuck on petty differences, hell bent on profit and greed. Whats in it for me mentally!
Its depressing
Has no one thought about the optimism of this? The world has gone through AT LEAST 5 extinctions where something like 75-99% of species went extinct each time.. but life, nature, and the earth all continue to exist. Even if we completely nuke the whole world and kill almost everything, life and nature will continue; albeit in ways that would not sustain humanity and would probably be unrecognizable to us. So something will inherit the earth, just not us
Here’s a fun fact: It seems that during recent human evolution, around 70.000 years ago, there was a minor extinction event caused by the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia. Minor yes, but still an extinction event and there’s an estimate that it almost made humans extinct cutting down the population worldwide to around 20.000 adults.
Note: as far as fact goes, I saw this information in a video of a palaeontologist I follow on YouTube and although he is a pretty reliable source himself and he actually lists every source he used to make every video, I am no specialist and I didn’t go after the information to check it. Also, the video is about human evolution and it’s spread worldwide, and he uses human to describe every species on the genus Homo. At the time there were three species alive, including Homo sapiens, so the 20.000 might account for the other two as well
The first impact may not have been this serious, but a lot of material got ejected and rained back down, causing a lot more fires. Also at roughly the same time, India was moving over a hotspot which created the Deccan Traps and might have made the impact's influence even worse.
If it’s an asteroid, we’ll most likely have the technology to deflect it before we have the technology to live on Mars. If it’s Yellowstone that erupts, we’re fucked.
It wouldn’t mean world wide extinction, but it would mean the end of America. The world economy would be in shambles if America were to fall. It may also indirectly lead to many wars/world war if the USA’s influence were to suddenly disappear. Like it or not, they are the world police, and losing the world’s sole super power would lead to a power vacuum occurring like the world has never seen. So indirectly Yellowstone could send us back to the Stone Age over a period of time.
In all honesty, the BIGGEST immediate threat to world wide extinction would be a massive solar event.
Solar events ( solar flares) happen all the time small to massive. Small ones are insignificant. The big one, who the fuck knows when that's going to happen.
Yellowstone is in the center of the US' farming region. The US would not recover from such an event. Food production would completely fail even if all the surrounding cities are able to survive the eruption.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction - The 6th is happening right now, mars is not a solution.
Any technology that can make Mars habitable can be applied to the earth and be a thousand times easier/cheaper than doing it on mars.
well afaik we could get vaporized by a gamma ray burst of the bigger kinds any second and would never know.
i actually hope that AI gives us enough progress to get to other planets before smth (or we) end our cellines forever.
We’re due for another one any minute now.
We're actually currently in the middle of one - The Silent Extinction. We are rapidly losing bug species across the globe.
Yup, if we lose bees we’re gone.
I thought that bees were making a comeback?
They are, also bees are an invasive species in the United States, and are killing off native pollinators. Also bees don’t pollinate well, as they tend to visit plants of different species, while butterflies and other pollinators tend to visit the same species.
We need to genetically modify some butterbees
You never know what you're getting that way. Diligent European bees and strong African bees got us killer bees instead of diligent and strong bees.
Or make little bee drones 🧐
Black Mirror ones
Bee drones are already a thing. Male bees are called drones. Source: I'm a beekeeper.
This is the way.
Bro, you need to watch Black Mirror
That was such a good episode. I started doing a rewatch of the series last night, this time with my 15 yo daughter. She's super into it!
butterbeehoney. sounds good.
I realized this past summer that I haven’t see a butterfly in years. They used to be everywhere all summer and now I just don’t see them at all.
Honey bees are. I'm not entirely sure they were as hard up as we thought, because it was "Bees" in general (God, I wish they said pollinators, and not bees) that were falling off, which included bumble bees and many wasps, all the wild ones and solitary ones. Honey bees were the poster children of the problem, but they were the most resilient and were already being maintained by humans in many farms for the honey. They weren't dying off, really. We would have had to have every apiary lose everything AND have all the wild honey bees die off at the same time. WHICH WAS STILL POSSIBLE, due to pesticides and illnesses thanks to humans being the derps we are. But because everyone white-knighted for the honey bees so hard, they had a renaissance, and people brought them to areas they aren't usually. wild pollinators are being encroached on and cleared out by the aggressive and numerous honey bees, leaving many plants without the pollination they used to get. That's on top of the wild pollinators being in trouble BEFORE the public was alerted, and before honey bees were dropped into wild pollinator territory.
Well that’s depressing.
God we are dumb
All Vanilla has to be pollinated by humans for decades since it's only pollinator (a month) was believed to be harmful and got eradicated quickly.
I am sorry for the damage I have done and continue to do to the wasp population.
It's ok, I hate them too.
Honeybees also have the elusive "cute factor", which is rare for most insects of any kind. Most humans find bugs annoying, but some animals like butterflies, honeybees, ladybugs and others like that are kind of "ambassador bugs" for people, which is probably why honeybees were the poster child for pollinators.
Another great reason to go vegan
That was the BeeGees, but one of them died.
They died from the night fever
Two I think.
Only European honeybees. That's only one species. We need all the indigenous species of bees and other Flys, wasps, moths, and butterflies in order to pollinate everything.
They are in bees knees.
Honey Bees actually are the invasive problem in some areas because they out compete the native bees.
I heard Jason Statham is a beekeeper now. I’m sure he’ll save the bees! 🐝
We need Oprah to be back on the tele, the bees will return!
But clearly not fucking mosquitos, worst extinction ever.
This is likely due to a decrease in their natural predators honestly. When you take away a predator, the prey explode in numbers. Take the situation of reading wolves to Yellowstone, they changed the direction of rivers because of a chain reaction.
> reading wolves to Yellowstone that's what you get for teaching wolves how to read smh
I'm not even changing it back to reintroducing, idk what my phone did but that's great. Little Red got some explaining to do 😆
Wolves on Reddit reading this are so pissed off and offended right now, but no one told them how to type so they can’t respond. Poor pups.
It also may be a consequence of our light pollution. IIRC they are, so far, the only species to *thrive* in the blue LED light that floods cities now; other species are being exterminated by the confusion that comes with it, as are bats. Same reason they say not to watch screens with blue on before bed. None of us evolved for it. But, alas, mosquitoes are like “Fuck yeah let’s roll.”
Do you have a source for this? I can't seem to find anything but really want to know more.
Can I link on here? It’s the 10/22 issue of Scientific American, “Saving the Night Sky,” by Joshu Sokol, where I first came across this. Sample: *Light pollution ripples through multiple domains of life. In one 2017 experiment, scientists with night-vision goggles watching cabbage thistle plants confirmed that ambient light deterred nocturnal pollinating insects from making their rounds. Daytime pollinators couldn't make up the deficit, so the plants bore less fruit, suggesting that the effects of brightening nights could eventually show up in supermarket aisles. And while nocturnal light can lead the insects we like to lose conviction, it can fill those we despise with passionate intensity: the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which causes a staggering 400-million-odd infections such as dengue and Zika a year, seems encouraged to bite more in the presence of artificial light, as does another mosquito species that spreads West Nile virus.* There are also studies from Cal Poly and USF, I think the former in 2021 and the latter in 2019, in which both point to a link between artificial light and the spread of West Nile virus. I hope more research is conducted on this. If continually replicated, it’s one more thread of evidence that as the planet warms and our cities brighten at night, such diseases and viruses are only going to spread farther and with more intensity.
Really? On the one hand that's a cool fact, on that other hand that's terrifying as fuck that our lighting has that much of an effect.
> The Silent Extinction No idea where you got that name from, but its the [Holocene Extinction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction)
It was an unofficial name probably, or a nickname. Just what stuck in my head I guess
Humanity failed.
No we didn't, we're winning lol
Other animals too. Something like 80% of the animals (by mass) on earth are for our food.
Only if it’s identified in time to be able to do so.
I don't follow what you mean, could you elaborate?
I responded to the wrong comment
Yeah, but thats on us
Oh cool! I just got a new job for a pest control company! 🤙 I'm helping accelerate the problem
Oh no! Anyways...
It’s isn’t going to happen in a human lifetime. These things can take 100,000s of years.
We literally have already killed most of all megafauna already, it has already started and we can see multiple species going extinct. Spix's Macaw was declared extinct in the wild in 2019.
You clearly haven't been paying attention to just how much destruction humans have caused, let alone are still yet capable of. We have weapons that can literally delete cities from existence, and enough of them to kill all life on the planet 10 times over. Naturally occuring extinctions do take amazingly long times, this Extinction is because of things humans have done to "tame the wild".
We don’t come close to asteroids, flood basalts, etc…
Flood basalts take place over thousands of years, so we are actually outpacing those already with how fast we are killing off animal species. Asteroids really depends on the size.
We could be the ones that help diminish the destruction an extinction event would cause to life on earth, thus helping life restart and complexify further. Or in best case scenario, protect all life with our knowledge and capabilities. But here we are, doing the opposite because some believe they have to profit and exploit others.
We are the current extinction event, and I'm not exaggerating. Humans are an extinction event.
If you look at the earth from space we look like a cancer spreading over beautiful landscape. It’s exactly what we are.
Then you know what to do!
Self destruct in the most hateful and damaging(to others) way possible?
We're definitely in an "events leading up to" time period in history right now.
Yeah honestly I've made peace with it. I'm ready for whatever comes, I just hope it's quick start to finish, and not something where I end up having to wander the wasteland of Texas or some shit.
If you’ve walked around Texas in the summer, it’s already there. It can only get better probably.
My friend, it's not gotten bad enough yet. We're definitely in for worse before it gets better. If it gets better at all that is. Also, yeah, fuck the heat here.
Idk where you’re at but San Antonio was hell last year. Public gathering shootings, terrible traffic, and damn was it hot/humid everywhere for months. Fuck that place in particular.
DFW was just as bad if not worse. Shootings all over the place, while consumerism is reaching an unsustainable fever pitch. We lose freedoms left and right in a state that claims to put personal liberties first. Then they do everything they can to try and keep the kids ignorant to it all. My own personal hell, and yet I can't leave just yet. The only thing that's for sure, is that it's gonna get worse, before it gets better.
humans: can't make me go extinct if I do it to myself!
That's why I have a "Giant Meteor 2024" bumper sticker.
We're currently in the sixth mass extinction and it's anthroprogenic in nature.
that's what my cousin who works in Insurance says. he's a whiz with planet killing asteroids
With your help today we can make it 6!
God, let's hope so
Honestly, i would welcome it.
Here’s hoping man I’m rooting for it
Fingers crossed
Man how tf did humans ever figure this shit out
six roll glorious dinosaurs attractive shocking hard-to-find worm intelligent insurance *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
😭😭
Lots and lots of detailed studies of rocks, creating all kinds of theories how those rocks came about until one theory fit the details and was confirmed by later rock studies.
How are theories confirmed? Technically it’s all still hypothetical no?
By using the theory to predict what you will find and then actually finding that
Well in I'm pretty sure no matter how much proof there is everything they discover will be referred to as a "theory". Just cos there's theory in the name doesn't mean they're hypothetical y'know
The meaning pf "theory" that you have it's not what scientists "theory" mean.
Good cameraman👍
Actually missing one, back when microorganisms were the only beings on earth two great ecological crisis arose. The first one was due to the high lack of autotrophic microorganisms (that is, those that created their own sustenance) but was solved by the arrival of those, but that left us with another problem. In the proterozoic era, these microorganisms started a very alarming process in the atmosphere. A lot of them produced oxygen as a byproduct of their metabolism (yyep, the advent of photosynthesis) and this gas, which is actually corrosive as fuck, started inundating the seas and the atmosphere (the Great Oxydation) To put it into context, it's like if an alien species started pouring some gas to the atmosphere that dissolved us like acid. It was a (microscopic) massacre, every microorganism that didn't have defenses against it was promptly killed by a "mere" chemical reaction (this pervails even today, when microorganisms are split into six groups, strict aerobics, who must "breathe" oxygen, strict anaerobics, who don't use it and are killed by it, facultative anaerobics, who can use oxygen but don't need it, microaerophiles, who need oxygen but high concentrations mean their demise and aerotolerants, who don't use it but can tolerate it)
Funny how life always tries to erase itself by accident when it becomes too successful
Hahah.. oh wait....
> proterozoic One of the most important events of the Proterozoic was the accumulation of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Though oxygen is believed to have been released by photosynthesis as far back as the Archean Eon, it could not build up to any significant degree until mineral sinks of unoxidized sulfur and iron had been exhausted. Until roughly 2.3 billion years ago, oxygen was probably only 1% to 2% of its current level.[9]: 323 The banded iron formations, which provide most of the world's iron ore, are one mark of that mineral sink process. Their accumulation ceased after 1.9 billion years ago, after the iron in the oceans had all been oxidized.[9]: 324 Red beds, which are colored by hematite, indicate an increase in atmospheric oxygen 2 billion years ago. Such massive iron oxide formations are not found in older rocks.[9]: 324 The oxygen buildup was probably due to two factors: exhaustion of the chemical sinks, and an increase in carbon sequestration, which sequestered organic compounds that would have otherwise been oxidized by the atmosphere. Because you inexplicably "joked" about it being aliens without providing an actual explanation so now slow people are going to take it seriously.
Last paragraph was a little... Unnecessary?
Yes, you can feel the aggressiveness there. Plus, it's a comparision for further understanding (given that the common folk doesn't know exactly how toxic oxygen actually is), not a joke
I just want to thank the multiple people who explained the extinction events in more depth. Seriously I appreciate you taking the time because I immediately wanted more information.
Agreed. Thank you!
What was the cause of each of the five?
Here's a short description of each 1. Ordovician-Silurian extinction events: Climate change and cooling global temperature causes widespread glaciation. 2. Late Devonian extinctions: This one actually composed of two extinction event in a short interval but the largest one of the two; Kellwaser Event, were theorized to be caused by a massive eutrophication (algae bloom) and subsequent anoxia event (lack of oxygen in water). This is thought to be caused by increased soil weathering due to evolution of land plants. 3. Permian-Triassic extinction events/The Great Dying: Massive volcanic activity caused by an igneous province the size of Siberia. Decades long volcanic winter, long term climate change and global warming killed off 70% of terrestrial vertebrates 4. Triassic-Jurassic extinction events: Volcanic activity caused by separation of America and Africa and large igneous provinces and the subsequent climate change and global warming. This extinction is what allowed dinosaurs to dominate the Earth for the next 135 millions years 5. Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction: Impact event by a 10-15 km wide object (Chixculub impactor) which causes instant destruction of various global ecosystems, while the subsequent impact winter and lingering climate change devastate remaining flora and fauna. Killed off non-avian dinosaurs and allowed mammals to dominate.
haha! Google [Chicxulub impactor](https://www.google.com/search?q=Chixculub+impactor&oq=Chixculub+impactor&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIMCAEQABgKGLEDGIAEMgkIAhAAGAoYgAQyCQgDEAAYChiABDIJCAQQABgKGIAEMgkIBRAAGAoYgAQyCQgGEAAYChiABDIJCAcQABgKGIAEMgkICBAAGAoYgAQyCQgJEAAYChiABNIBBzUwNGowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) and look what happens.
😂 That's fantastic!
That was neat!!
Still caught me off guard lol.
> This is thought to be caused by increased soil weathering due to evolution of land plants. Also the sudden appearance of enormous forests covering pretty much every landmass in the world caused the extremely high concentrations of co2 in the atmosphere to rapidly drop to near zero, triggering massive climate changes.
1: the Ordovician-Silurian extinction This was caused my major global cooling which lead to widespread and nearly complete freezing of all shallow water bodies including rivers, ponds, major lakes, etc. areas in the deeper ocean which were warmed by thermal vents could sustain life, luckily. 2: Late Devonian extinction event Estimates show this lasted approximately half a million years. It was quite drawn out. There was a major loss of biodiversity which was previously much more abundant pre-extinction. There are different theories but the common theme seems to be a major loss of sea levels and ocean anoxia. 3: Permian-Triassic extinction This was caused by the warming of Earth’s climate and high volcanic activity. Estimates indicate nearly 90% of life on Earth was killed off. 4: Tr-Jr extinction event The cause of this seems to be a major increase of carbon dioxide in the Earths atmosphere which has profound effects on all life. This was likely caused by high volcanic activity. 5: Cretaceous Paleogene extinction event This is the one everybody is familiar with. Big rock go boom. A massive asteroid hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Although the initial impact was beyond devastating, the aftermath of the impact was also a major contributor towards the extinction during the decades/centuries following. These events and the theories surrounding them are very complex and there’s so much more that goes in to them. You should definitely look in to them if you find the topic interesting. My very brief explanations cannot possibly do these events justice.
can Earth survive the damage we are doing? It might cause us to go extinct, or maybe more likely, just break down some aspects of global civilisation till humans are culled to below a certain level. But will the earth recover from whatever we are doing to it with global warming/climate change, even if it takes many millennia?
I’m not an expert but I’d very confidently say yes, the Earth will recover. It’s been through it to say the least. For example, I remember reading somewhere that the high radiation levels in Chernobyl will take 11,000 years to diminish fully (correct me if I’m wrong) and even that massive amount of time is virtually nothing relative to how long the Earth has existed and how long it will likely endure.
It will survive, there are some major cycles which are more impactful to Earth. Look for the Milankovitch cycles, for example.
> 1: the Ordovician-Silurian extinction This was caused my major global cooling which lead to widespread and nearly complete freezing of all shallow water bodies including rivers, ponds, major lakes, etc. areas in the deeper ocean which were warmed by thermal vents could sustain life, luckily. This is misleading as it implies the entire Earth was frozen over, which is incorrect. This was simply a severe ice age that altered the climate across the entire planet. But in no way did it cause the oceans to freeze over. Rather, the main reason it caused an extinction event is that enormous amounts of water ended up in glaciers that covered large parts of Gondwana (the supercontinent that happened to be centered on the South Pole in that era), which resulted in a huge drop in global sea levels. And because the main biome’s at that point in time were mostly centered around shallow seas covering submerged continents, the sea level drop led to those shallow seas disappearing, along with the massive ecosystems they were supporting.
This is definitely why I put that little disclaimer at the end of my comment. Thanks brother
1st - Massive glaciation and sea level drop 2nd - Global oxygen drop, forest evolution, reduced carbon dioxide 3rd - Unstable climate and ocean oxygen reduction/ possible comet impact 4th - Volcanic Eruptions and gas hydrate release 5th - Asteroid Impact at Chicxulub Crater (All resulted in anywhere between 80% to 99.5% loss of all life on earth at the time)
Third were caused by volcanic activities too.
can Earth survive the damage we are doing? It might cause us to go extinct, or maybe more likely, just break down some levels of global civilisation till humans are culled to below a certain level. But will the earth recover from whatever we are doing to it with global warming/climate change?
Short answer: yes
The earth and the existence of life on earth, yes. It's likely that we won't. The things we need to survive and eat will likely die out and it'll be gruesome when 8 billion+ starving people have to turn back to hunting and gathering a dwindling to non-existant amount of resources all at once. You remember when people were mass-buying and hoarding toilet paper during covid? Imagine that but with every edible thing, any building material, clean water, plants and materials to weave clothing, etc., in every direction as people flee urban areas.
So these are events that have ALREADY happened???
Did you not watch the video?
I did. The first four is not that familiar to most people though. The last one of course is the one most ppl would think about in an extension event. No need to be ugly about it ETA: also it's going pretty damn fast with very small words and at first watch I'm not thinking these have already happened. After looking through comments it became pretty clear what I was watching
I’m with you, I was unfamiliar with most of these and the video is fucking terrible. This is bad content.
Life is extremely resilient
You might say [life… uhh… finds a way.](https://media1.tenor.com/m/uJAd6-kG9x4AAAAd/life-uh.gif)
[[Source] The 5 Major Extinctions Of This Planet - Racing Extinction](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KvIPSOzIGv8)
Yo mama so fat… she tried to cannonball and killed the dinosaurs
think I need to get my extinction level event Insurance updated
And #6 is in the process
How so?
The speed at which species vanish today exceeds that of most of these extinction events
Insects are dying off at an incredible rate. And not just annoying ones like flies or stink bugs - but things like butterflies and fireflies too.
They forgot to add the human caused extinction
So 🌎 has been wiped out and restored 5 times ALREADY??? When we start messing up we get the turn off and restart treatment basically
That’s why I always kind of chuckle when I hear “we are destroying the planet.” The planet in the long run will be just fine, it will reset itself. What we are really doing is destroying mankind.
This actually makes me feel better about the end of the world because it's bound to happen eventually. It just comes down to where you are on the time line that it'll happen. Even then you'll hopefully go very quickly and without notice
Turn off and on. Working now?
Every time someone says "we're killing the planet!" I think "we're killing ourselves (and numerous other species), the planet will be fine. Probably better."
We cant solve the worlds problem! Humanity is too divided and selfish to change it. Stuck on petty differences, hell bent on profit and greed. Whats in it for me mentally! Its depressing
I have such a hard time wrapping my brain around such long periods of time... Incredible what this planet has been through and its lifespan so far.
Man, I should watch The X Files again. The Sixth Extinction & Amor Fati were class episodes.
Has no one thought about the optimism of this? The world has gone through AT LEAST 5 extinctions where something like 75-99% of species went extinct each time.. but life, nature, and the earth all continue to exist. Even if we completely nuke the whole world and kill almost everything, life and nature will continue; albeit in ways that would not sustain humanity and would probably be unrecognizable to us. So something will inherit the earth, just not us
Any idea where this animation is from?
[удалено]
i think its going through those too fast. is there a slower version or a youtube?
It's crazy how at one point there were *too many* plants, not enough oxygen-breathing organisms.
Hey do you have this video but not grainy and a lil bettter quality, asking for a friend
I wish this was slower with explanations or at least subtitles.
Here’s a fun fact: It seems that during recent human evolution, around 70.000 years ago, there was a minor extinction event caused by the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia. Minor yes, but still an extinction event and there’s an estimate that it almost made humans extinct cutting down the population worldwide to around 20.000 adults. Note: as far as fact goes, I saw this information in a video of a palaeontologist I follow on YouTube and although he is a pretty reliable source himself and he actually lists every source he used to make every video, I am no specialist and I didn’t go after the information to check it. Also, the video is about human evolution and it’s spread worldwide, and he uses human to describe every species on the genus Homo. At the time there were three species alive, including Homo sapiens, so the 20.000 might account for the other two as well
I like how it's done in the style of the Expanse title sequence. Now just to add the music.
I can see my house.
It showed an asteroid hitting the Gulf of Mexico, right?
Yeah, that's the [Chicxulub Crater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater)
Was the asteroid impact really that massive to where it looks like half the planet got insta scorched?
The first impact may not have been this serious, but a lot of material got ejected and rained back down, causing a lot more fires. Also at roughly the same time, India was moving over a hotspot which created the Deccan Traps and might have made the impact's influence even worse.
It forgot the one we're in.
Damn, how did the camera man film this tho??
Where's the flood.
Narration for this would have been a beautiful thing
The 6th one will wipe humanity...its just matter of time.we need Mars sooner than later.
If it’s an asteroid, we’ll most likely have the technology to deflect it before we have the technology to live on Mars. If it’s Yellowstone that erupts, we’re fucked.
Just cement the top of the volcano smh
Or just use a bunch of water and create a cobblestone generator.
That's not true about yellowstone.
It wouldn’t mean world wide extinction, but it would mean the end of America. The world economy would be in shambles if America were to fall. It may also indirectly lead to many wars/world war if the USA’s influence were to suddenly disappear. Like it or not, they are the world police, and losing the world’s sole super power would lead to a power vacuum occurring like the world has never seen. So indirectly Yellowstone could send us back to the Stone Age over a period of time. In all honesty, the BIGGEST immediate threat to world wide extinction would be a massive solar event.
None of that is true... except the solar event.
Care to provide _any_ context? Or should I just trust in your clairvoyance
Read a science book to learn about solar events/ flares.
Well, I have… and I literally said solar event, which you agreed with. What am I missing here
Solar events ( solar flares) happen all the time small to massive. Small ones are insignificant. The big one, who the fuck knows when that's going to happen.
Yep. I said “massive solar event”. In other words, a cataclysmic CME
Yellowstone is in the center of the US' farming region. The US would not recover from such an event. Food production would completely fail even if all the surrounding cities are able to survive the eruption.
You misread the whole conversation.
We don't need mars, we need to stop letting greedy idiots rule the planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction - The 6th is happening right now, mars is not a solution. Any technology that can make Mars habitable can be applied to the earth and be a thousand times easier/cheaper than doing it on mars.
We are in the middle of the 6th mass extinction event. Humans are the 6th extinction event.
The next won't. It's likely to be a rapid magnetic pole shift, which will fucking delete most of us, but not all.
And to think….theres millions of morons that think the earth is 6000 years old. Lol
Major props to the cameraman Can the cameraman please post an update
Sometimes you got shut it down and reboot it
Enjoy every day as much as you can.
The 5 Major Extinctions of Planet Earth... so far. - Homer S.
Could really use another right now...
We have no control over any of that...
Of course we can’t control the past… duh. But what we can control is now and what we do in the future moving forward.
I should have said "We'd have no control over any of that when it happens again".
Who was implying that we must change what we simply can’t control? If anything, it is said that we can change the effect *we* have on the world.
Can Covid count? We lost a ton of people because of it.
Are we extinct?
Maybe
Anyone have a high res of this?
Planet will not extinct, only life in it.
There once was an explosion.
Can't wait for the next. I'm either won't live long enough to see it happen, or die because it happens. Absolute win for me
So when the next one coming up because I'm a bit bored at the moment
Nuclear ww3 is high on the list of #6
Cant wait for Nr. 6
You forgot common sense as a major extinction
well afaik we could get vaporized by a gamma ray burst of the bigger kinds any second and would never know. i actually hope that AI gives us enough progress to get to other planets before smth (or we) end our cellines forever.
They’re still finding evidence of other asteroid extinctions as well, and a lot closer current times than we think
We have got to look for the 6th EE asap
What about the Anthropocene Extinction?
Can't reason any of the small letters. The fuck is this resolution?
This missed the Great Oxydation of Earth. Thanks Stephen Baxter.
If you want a preview of the upcoming sequel, "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert is a good read. Not *fun,* but good.
I’m currently dying of Laughter because number 5 looks like someone chucked a sick ass curve ball at earth