Extinction
The planet isn’t goin’ anywhere. We are.
For your amusement, here is George Carlin, at his best, making fun of those who strive to save the planet, when it is their own species whose demise is inevitable. Well, that last bit isn’t so humorous.
Earth becoming a smoking, glowing, oily mess
“We . . . are turning our planet into a smoking, glowing, oily mess . . . plundering Mother Earth of her treasures . . . refusing to recognize the growing evidence that our reliance on oil, coal and nuclear threatens our health, our security, our economy, our nation and the world,” said Rep. Dennis [...]
Bluefin tuna facing extinction
“Atlantic bluefin tuna could become extinct after an attempt to stop the international buying and selling [of bluefin] was rejected . . . .” CBBC’s Newsround, a website for kids, breaks the bad news to a generation that will inherit oceans devoid of tuna and most other fish. “Numbers of this this type of tuna [...]
Searching for intelligent life on Earth and beyond
Sometimes I wonder if Earth’s leading candidate for an “intelligent” species, Homo sapiens, is really any smarter than yeast. For the purposes of this post, however, I’ll concede that humans qualify as intelligent, because my subject today is extraterrestrial intelligence. Does our failure to find even one other civilization in the cosmic expanse tell us [...]
Industrial civilization is killing the planet
“It should be clear to everyone by now—even those with a vested interest in ignorance—that industrial civilization is killing the planet. It’s causing unprecedented human privation and suffering. Unless it’s stopped, or somehow stops itself, or most likely collapses under the weight of its inherent ecological and human destructiveness, it will kill every living being [...]
Infinite monkeys, finite resources
Ever heard of The Infinite Monkey Theorem? It goes something like this: Given infinite time, a monkey banging randomly on typewriter keys would reproduce a given work, such as Hamlet. Variations of the theorem add more monkeys to reproduce more works, such as the complete plays of Shakespeare, or all the books in the British [...]
Climate change: Fire or ice?
Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. – [...]
Guest essay: The Paradise Imperative
A few days ago, “The Paradise Imperative” appeared as a comment on my “Contact” page. It was purportedly an essay by William H. Kötke, author of such works as The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future, and Garden Planet. I had read the former work and mentioned it on [...]
Mass extinction continues, ignored by MSM
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reports that “17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed species are threatened with extinction.” This includes “21% of all known mammals, 30% of all known amphibians, 12 per cent of all known birds and 32% of all known gymnosperms (conifers and cycads).” ICUN also notes that “results for [...]
Are humans smarter than yeast?
Are humans smarter than yeast? That question has become a catch phrase among environmentalists, increasingly posed not in jest but in earnest. It’s the title of an eight minute YouTube video by Dan Chay, but Dave Bice explains its meaning more concisely: “Yeast growing in grape juice provide a good example of overshoot and collapse [...]
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