I’m a believer in the theory that Crust Displacement and the massive climate change at the end of the pleistocene destroyed the last great civilization on our planet, so the concept that Earth’s tilt is instrumental in extinctions over longer cycles is plausible.
If rodents in Spain are any guide, periodic changes in Earth’s orbit may account for the apparent regularity with which new species of mammals emerge and then go extinct, scientists are reporting.
It so happens, the paleontologists say, that variations in the course Earth travels around the Sun and in the tilt of its axis are associated with episodes of global cooling. Their new research on the fossil record shows that the cyclical pattern of these phenomena corresponds to species turnover in rodents and probably other mammal groups as well.
In a report appearing Thursday in the journal Nature, Dutch and Spanish scientists led by Jan van Dam of Utrecht University in the Netherlands say the “astronomical hypothesis for species turnover provides a crucial missing piece in the puzzle of mammal species- and genus-level evolution.”
No matter the theory, the fact is that if the climate changes radically in any fashion we’re pooched no matter what the cause.
So, we didn’t have as many billions of years to evolve? This shakes my belief in eveloution. Now I’m really upset.
Actually, periodic die-offs help stimulate the survivors’ development.
There are lots of facts, and thories…
But if you really look into the past…Its something like 10,000-100,000 years between extinctions, no matter the causes..
But even in Natural extinction..the MAIN cause comes when an animal over runs its habitat. Decimates the food supply, poisons itself off from its own offal, and waste.
It happens all the time, species spawn, grow beyond their habitat’s capacity, then become extinct. Humans are no different from the dinosaurs, when it’s time to go we’re gone. Should roaches ever grow into a size that would permit brain development then they shall rule the universe.
Not gonna happen… Humans have one advantage that no other creature has ever had. We can leverage technology to alter our environment in radical ways and/or to leave the environment altogether. When doom rears its ugly head, we’ll adapt… When (not if) we master life in the solar system at significant numbers, we’ll be immortal.
Some humans are very intelligent. Unfortunately, our leaders are not in that group. I predict doom.
5,
I’m with you, but if we don’t fund space development it will never happen.
5,
Look at 7…
And understand 1 thing…
The USA is sending about 1/3 of our food to other countries NOW.
WE are the major Rice grower of the world. USA farmers feed 1/2 the world…
We are pushing the soil so Hard, we have to PUT in the minerals and suppliments that the plants need, JUST to have any nutrients…
THe USA is at its limits…Unless you wish to destry the Amazon, to grow MORE…YOU ARE SCREWD.
WE need to develope, NOW, ANOTHER planet…
OR kill off about 3 billion people.
If we do the later, WHOM do you wish to kill?? 1/2 of China or the REST of the world.??
Oh yeah, sure, sure.
And the continous decline of both animal and plant species is just because the Earth shook a bit, not because someone likes shark fin soup, or someone else in the midwest finds fun to shoot bears, or that a house cat’s predilection to behead little birds wiped an entire colony of endangered birds.
Gee, I thought it was Bush’s falt.
This is one of those rare moments that I agree with Smartalix….I think he has something with his theory about the crust movements.
I also think this theory advanced here is another factor. I had read some stuff on this about 6 months ago and with some follow up became convinced it has a lot of truth to it, especially the tilt idea.
But as I always say on these things, it still dosen’t mean we can rape the planet and go our merry way, we have to seriously plan for a hotter future and find ways to power our needs that don’t make Nature any worse than it will be on it’s own.
The planet Earth is just like a dog with fleas, eventually the fleas get to be such a problem that the dog finds ways to rid itself of them, just as the Earth will find a way to get rid of it’s fleas(mankind).
Thanks, Joshua.
A good book to read on the last great civilization is Graham Hancock’s “Fingerprints of the Gods”.
9..
Not really…
Its mankinds need to expand, make more room, so his Pet cat incrouches on a dieing species of bird.
Its also cause and effect..
Because there is ALOT of flooding aorund the world, many are moving Inland.
This has alot of affects, on others already there.
Think that if 40 miles of Sea side, becomes to Water Logged and to mush flooding, so everyone Moves BACK 40 miles.
Most people LIVE on a water front, of ocean or river.. Consider 1/2 of the middle east MOVES inland. There is going to be ALOT of fighting.
think of the Flat lands Lost to flooding.
the crowding…
Humans dont get along, well, in the first place…Take upto 1/3 of their Land away from them and see what happens.
#8 ECA – WE are the major Rice grower of the world.
That’s rather ironic…
We are pushing the soil so Hard, we have to PUT in the minerals and suppliments that the plants need, JUST to have any nutrients…
THe USA is at its limits…Unless you wish to destry the Amazon, to grow MORE…YOU ARE SCREWD.
We could do crop rotation with hemp… but for conservatives holding brandy snifters who are opposed to drugs…
The Amazon must be protected at all costs. Other nations need to be empowered with greater training, equipment, grants, loans, and whatever else we do for other nations to get their agro businesses going.
Hydroponic space platforms would be nice too. Let’s dig out an old copy of Silent Running (Bruce Dern, dir Douglas Trumble) to see how that is done)
WE need to develope, NOW, ANOTHER planet…
OR kill off about 3 billion people.
If we do the later, WHOM do you wish to kill?? 1/2 of China or the REST of the world.??
Well, 1/2 of China is far less than 3 billion… It is 1.3 billion… And we don’t need to kill anyone. We have a long time before population becomes critical especially since birth rates are slowing down.
But yes… Yes… Fund NASA… Good Christ…. if you multiply the NASA budget by 10 you’d have a fraction of what it should be.
#10 – Gee, I thought it was Bush’s falt.
Comment by BgScryAnml
It is. What gave you the impression that it wasn’t?
14,
With the population increases..
Think what other countries pay to Import food..
they need more and more and more lands…the farmers need something Big enough to grow crops to feed themselves, and Pay there taxes…Its bad enough for farmers in the USA.. being bought out by Larger corps, that sell the goods at Major profits.. a farmer gets $2.40 per 100 lbs of potatoes, and we pay McD’s $1.59 for 4 oz..
THEn, they cant direct Export, as the Gas/fuel industry does to make HIGHER profits.
As to hemp..
the only reasons they dont want it int he USA, is that we import HEMP for the navy, and cant control it if everyone grows it. If they could control its growth, they WOULD and market it to us, like everything else.. From clothing, shoes, Oils, Fuels, alcohol, drugs…and that isnt the THC side which it has been found, that those that smoke MJ dont get Glocoma, and have fewer eye problems.