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[Indicate]

Unfortunately there will be deniers

 

[Mecha]

The rich are going to be worrying about their profit until the bitter end.

Pray to reason.

Woah man, you sure told him.

 

[Mariolee]

It's insanity that people literally do not give a shit and outright deny this is happening. They've somehow whittled down something as factual as extinction rate and climate change into political lines.

 

[GK86]

We invented the internet. We can't top that. Best to go out on top.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

It's insanity that people literally do not give a shit and outright deny this is happening. They've somehow whittled down something as factual as extinction rate and climate change into political lines.

To be fair humans can't even grasp numbers larger than 10. We've achieved a lot via abstraction and written language, but to internalize huge concepts like specie variation, evolution, extinction is really tough. You can read about it, but you can't really "feel" it.

 

[spons]

the best shot we got is getting of this rock

 

[Not]

Unfortunately there will be deniers

If everyone just straight up believed, we'd all be robots! God had to give us a sinful nature.

 

[ugly]

To be fair humans can't even grasp numbers larger than 10. We've achieved a lot via abstraction and written language, but to internalize huge concepts like specie variation, evolution, extinction is really tough. You can read about it, but you can't really "feel" it.

Sure you can, but that takes effort, and Netflix is easier.

 

[Ahasverus]

Huge Wayward Pines Spoilers:

Spoiler

It's all good, just start freezing all the white and Asian people in Idaho

Omg I hadn't realized. Where are my blacks?

 

[Ayt]

At this point I would love some overwhelmingly good news about the future of humanity, just to shake things up

We'll go extinct at some point as well!

 

[ugly]

We'll go extinct at some point as well!

Can't wait for the sweet embrace of death!

 

[IchigoSharingan]

going extinct? better luck next time

 

[massivekettle]

we have a process called peer review in which data is poured over exhaustively and confirmed and re-confirmed or else the scientific community calls you out on it and tosses your study in the garbage, as has happened a zillion times in the past

but you know if the evil scientist shadow organization existed, that prooobably wouldn't have happened. Scientists don't need 'doomsday' to get funding, there are enough actual reasons - both in investments in bettering mankind's technological future, expanding food stores and fighting diseases and other such things - that they don't also need to pretend that bad shit is happening to the Earth.

It's happening. The data is real. Devil's Advocacy denied.

I agree, by the way. However, most will only believe it if it affects them personally.

 

[Durask]

So it is the sixth mass extinction event.

Philosophically, how is it different from the previous five?
What is the difference between human activity and a big whopping rock dropping from space?

 

[LurkerPrime]

At this point I would love some overwhelmingly good news about the future of humanity, just to shake things up

Peace on Earth isn't a dream, but an inevitable reality.

So it is the sixth mass extinction event.

Philosophically, how is it different from the previous five?
What is the difference between human activity and a big whopping rock dropping from space?

We had a choice. And yes, this was our decision.

 

[NullPointer]

Woah man, you sure told him.

Wasn't meant to.

 

[bigmit3737]

Are there specific species that if wiped out would destroy humanity ?

Can't we get to a point where we can recreate species though genetic engineering?

 

[HK-47]

So it is the sixth mass extinction event.

Philosophically, how is it different from the previous five?
What is the difference between human activity and a big whopping rock dropping from space?

It isnt different.

 

[Amir0x]

I agree, by the way. However, most will only believe it if it affects them personally.

I know you agree, but you were playing Devil's Advocate and so I had to fight the Devil's argument

So it is the sixth mass extinction event.

Philosophically, how is it different from the previous five?
What is the difference between human activity and a big whopping rock dropping from space?

It's not different. Technically, it doesn't matter one bit to the universe if the entire planet is destroyed and every single thing related to it eradicated from all memory.

But if we have any care in the world about our future and the potential possibilities of our expansion into the universe, we better do something, quick. This is the one time there is something the cause of the extinction itself can do about all this stuff, if only we took the astronomically tiny chance of working together and being proactive about fixing it.

 

[Coriolanus]

Reminds me of that bit in Guns, Germs and Steel where the author points out this weird thing that tends to happen to macrofauna when humanity is suddenly introduced into their environment.

 

[Intheflorsh]

I thought you liberals liked natural selection?

Spoiler

/s

 

[Not]

Are there specific species that if wiped out would destroy humanity ?

Can't we get to a point where we can recreate species though genetic engineering?

Only if we can make money off of theme park tickets

 

[weekend_warrior]

We're not a good species, are we?

 

[PeskyToaster]

I genuinely think we will be okay. Things may change, people will die, but life, uhhhh, finds a way.

 

[zeemumu]

Would the window for a mass extinction event be huge, especially because there have only been a few in the history of the planet? I feel like that would have a slow startup time.

We're not a good species, are we?

Not really. We move too fast beyond our own operating boundaries, a lot of the time out of curiosity. Maybe that tree of knowledge thing was a bad idea.

 

[ugly]

So it is the sixth mass extinction event.

Philosophically, how is it different from the previous five?
What is the difference between human activity and a big whopping rock dropping from space?

The difference is a rock can't post on NeoGAF about it and raise awareness.

UNLESS AMIROX IS SECRETLY AN AMIROCK

Spoiler

Amirox is secretly an Amiibo

 

[Foffy]

I genuinely think we will be okay. Things may change, people will die, but life, uhhhh, finds a way.

If human beings are wiped from the earth as a result of this, then life really is gorgeous.

 

[ibyea]

So it is the sixth mass extinction event.

Philosophically, how is it different from the previous five?
What is the difference between human activity and a big whopping rock dropping from space?

No, and life forms have caused extinctions too. One of the first mass extinction was caused by cyanobacterias because they released oxygen as part of their metabolism.

 

[Not]

The difference is a rock can't post on NeoGAF about it and raise awareness.

UNLESS AMIROX IS SECRETLY AN AMIROCK

Spoiler

Amirox is secretly an Amiibo

Damn stonies*... always tryin' to take the place of us hardworkin' humans!





*

Spoiler

my made-up slur for rocks

 

[dejay]

This is news to people?

Reminds me of that bit in Guns, Germs and Steel where the author points out this weird thing that tends to happen to macrofauna when humanity is suddenly introduced into their environment.

Witness the extinction of Australian mega fauna that coincided with the first humans in Australia, then the second wave after European settlement. Humans are selfish. I am too. It's not going to change, or at least change enough to make much of a difference.

 

[ugly]

This is news to people?



Witness the extinction of Australian mega fauna that coincided with the first humans in Australia, then the second wave after European settlement. Humans are selfish. I am too. It's not going to change, or at least change enough to make much of a difference.

All beings are selfish. All life must consume or it dies. It's the force of motion. Spirit, they call it. Being born as a human is just playing Earth on easy-mode.

 

[HK-47]

We're not a good species, are we?

Well in a purely evolutionary sense we are king of the hill supposedly. But then again we are so stupid we will eventually render the planet unsuitable for us. So maybe we arent even that.

 

[ugly]

Well in a purely evolutionary sense we are king of the hill supposedly. But then again we are so stupid we will eventually render the planet unsuitable for us. So maybe we arent even that.

Hey man, stop putting us down!

 

[Amir0x]

This is news to people?

It is literally news, since before scientists merely had a suspicion we were getting there, and now it has undeniably been confirmed with hard, raw data based on the most conservative estimates possible.

This is NEWS in all capital letters in the real sense, in that there is data so starkly clear that it should be alarming to anyone with even a casual interest in humanity's future.

 

[brian577]

Unfortunately there will be deniers

God forbid we be a little skeptical and not get it our bunkers yet. One study does not a fact make. Peer reviews are necessary, further studies should be conducted. I'm not saying the study couldn't be accurate but lets not panic.

I don't see anything other than wiping out half of humanity as a possible solution.

You volunteering?

 

[Nodnol]

I don't see anything other than wiping out half of humanity as a possible solution.

The greater good of the species and all that, not to mention the planet.

 

[CyclopsRock]

What does "official" mean here?

 

[AstroNut325]

I can't believe all the joke and might hearted posts in this thread.

 

[Foffy]

Well in a purely evolutionary sense we are king of the hill supposedly. But then again we are so stupid we will eventually render the planet unsuitable for us. So maybe we arent even that.

For us to be king, we'd have to live with the world. You know, a king (humans) and his domain (the biosphere). We often live against it. The idea of the "conquest of nature" for an economy, for some ephemeral game of temporary stability which is always evoked and conditioned but never objectively true, for all sorts of nonsense, is what instill us to live in a way that is not in cooperation with what exists, but in the game to literally destroy all of it. What hill are king of? The hill of failure? The hill of nature gone awry?

If anything, we're a tumor on this planet, a malformation in the body of nature. I'd be willing to say ebola is a better thing for the earth than the people that live on it, for at least a virus doesn't distort the world in such illogical, unfathomable ways to tear it all apart.

 

[Amir0x]

God forbid we be a little skeptical and not get it our bunkers yet. One study does not a fact make. Peer reviews are necessary, further studies should be conducted. I'm not saying the study couldn't be accurate but lets not panic.

This is literally a study that is meant to check many past studies and see if the criticisms against them had any merit. To do this, they checked all available data and used the most ridiculously conservative estimates possible in their formula to see if it could still be considered a mass extinction event, and even with those estimates we are well beyond what would be considered entering one. You could say it was the most powerful peer review of the issue yet.

Read:

The oft-repeated claim that Earth’s biota is entering a sixth “mass extinction” depends on clearly demonstrating that current extinction rates are far above the “background” rates prevailing in the five previous mass extinctions. Earlier estimates of extinction rates have been criticized for using assumptions that might overestimate the severity of the extinction crisis. We assess, using extremely conservative assumptions, whether human activities are causing a mass extinction. First, we use a recent estimate of a background rate of 2 mammal extinctions per 10,000 species per 100 years (that is, 2 E/MSY), which is twice as high as widely used previous estimates.

 

[NerdEyeBlind]

I forsee three possibilities:

1) Jesus comes back, saves most of us. Rest of us get to hang with Nic Cage

2) Mulder & Scully prevent the next extinction

Spoiler

AMOR FATI

3) the Vulcans come and help us develop Warp technology

 

[HK-47]

God forbid we be a little skeptical and not get it our bunkers yet. One study does not a fact make. Peer reviews are necessary, further studies should be conducted. I'm not saying the study couldn't be accurate but lets not panic.

I cant wait for the corporate sellout scientists to spin this.

 

[ugly]

God forbid we be a little skeptical and not get it our bunkers yet. One study does not a fact make. Peer reviews are necessary, further studies should be conducted. I'm not saying the study couldn't be accurate but lets not panic.

One pretty agreeable fact though, is that humanity is hitting unsustainable trends of progression. This research is a tool we can use to actualise that feeling we all know in the back of our minds. We do not have to panic, you're right - that achieves little to nothing. What we can do is take this study into consideration as we move forward in our individual lives. It's simply a thing that seems to be occurring (with pretty solid evidence to back it up

Spoiler

says the guy who didn't even read anything more than the OP

).

What does "official" mean here?

The CEO of Earth said yes.

I can't believe all the joke and might hearted posts in this thread.

Grow some astronuts

 

[brian577]

This is literally a study that is meant to check many past studies and see if the criticisms against them had any merit. To do this, they checked all available data and used the most ridiculously conservative estimates possible in their formula to see if it could still be considered a mass extinction event, and even with those estimates we are well beyond what would be considered entering one. You could say it was the most powerful peer review of the issue yet.

Read:

Even if that is the case. As the study states, there's still time to turn things around. Whether humanity has the will to do so however is another matter.

 

[Warm Machine]

Honestly, I think in the next 10 years we are going to see a massive positive shift due to self fulfilling technological progress.

 

[Cow Mengde]

I'm gonna try and act really surprised.

 

[Weiss]

We deserve it.

We're fucking shit. All of us. We deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth.

 

[Amir0x]

Even if that is the case. As the study states, there's still time to turn things around. Whether humanity has the will to do so however is another matter.

Almost all studies on the issue say there's a chance. But if you actually ask the prominent scientists in the field what the probability of that chance actually occurring are, almost all of them will say extremely low.

It is important we realize just how close we are to going over the edge for humanity itself. The universe will go on, life will flourish somewhere else in the universe even if it dies forever here.

But we, the humans species, will never have another chance.

 

[Not]

We deserve it.

We're fucking shit. All of us. We deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth.

But I like being conscious and perceiving things around me

 

[Archer]

Everyone, let us be honest with ourselves.

There is no method possible to avert the impending disaster, or to mitigate the damage already caused.

Yes, theoretically if the entire world banded together, there is a large chance of salvation. This event will never happen. The developing world views it as only fair, after years of subjugation, to industrialise, regardless of the ramifications. The developed world is mostly apathetic, used to the energy inefficient way of life. This does not take into account unstable regions.

I do my part because I at least wish to pretend as if there is a chance. But unless a technology is developed that is able to alter the world's chemical output, I imagine the rest of this century and beyond will fare poorly.

Agree with you. As much as I do want kids, I can't decide if I want to have them and subject them to the future of this world.