Letter to the Editor
As the global warming bubble deflates, another scare is being inflated – species extinction. Naturally the professional alarmists present this as a brand new threat, caused by man’s industry.
However, species extinction, like climate change, is the way of the world.
It was not carbon dioxide that entombed millions of mammoths and other animals in mucky ice from Iceland to Alaska. It was not steam engines that wiped out the dinosaurs and 75% of other species who had dominated the Earth for 180 million years. There were no humans to blame for the Great Permian Extinction when over 90% of all life on Earth was destroyed – animals, plants, trees, fish, plankton even algae disappeared suddenly.
Sadly, history shows that it is the destiny of most species to be destroyed by periodic natural calamities or competition from other species. Earth’s history is a moving picture, not a still life. No species has an assured place on Earth. Some species can adapt and survive – those unable to adapt are removed from the gene pool.
Earth’s periodic species extinctions are usually associated with widespread glaciation, volcanism, earth movements and solar disruptions. Most geological eras have closed with such calamitous events. Random and more localised species extinctions are caused by rogue comets. But global warming and abundant carbon dioxide have never featured as causes of mass extinctions.
Because of Earth’s long turbulent history, most species surviving today are not “fragile”. Every one of them, including humans, is descended from a long line of survivors going back to the beginnings of life on Earth.
Man has thrived because of his adaptability, resourcefulness and more recently, his use of science and technology. We cannot now return to a cave-man existence. Without the freedom to explore, develop and utilise our resources, most humans would not survive.
Species extinction events are not new, are not caused by burning carbon fuels, and will probably occur again. We will need all of our freedom, ingenuity and technology to survive.
Let us not hasten our own species extinction by starving ourselves of food and energy with foolish demonization of carbon, the building block of all life forms.
Viv Forbes,
Rosewood Qld Australia
I am happy for my email address to be published.
John Game,
I sympathize. At this point hopefully you realize that the difference between you and almost everyone else on this thread (and seemingly a simple majority of WUWT readers for that matter) is that you are capable of realizing that entities other than yourself have intrinsic value.
Torgeir Hansson says:
June 4, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Well, my God, Hansson, we can actually agree on something you said this time. God bless the pig, feral or otherwise, and the delicious cutlets they make.
With regards to the spotted owl. I read recently (~6 mo ago) that the USFWS (possibly a different fed agency) has a program where they have hunters (feds) that call in another species of owl and shoot them (kill) because they are better adapted to the mature forest that the spotted owl nests in and are thus competing with the spotted owl. What a job, get paid to kill a protected species for the hell of it.
When the program for the reintroduction of the so-called Red Wolf began back in the 70’s they were released in NC Cades Cove area of the Smokey Mtns. A suit was filed by a Tennessee landowner to remove the pack attacking his livestock. Ultimately in around 1990 a federal judge ruled they were protected under the interstate commerce clause because tourists may come to hear them howl. The land owner presented his case w/ DNA analysis proving that the ‘Red Wolf” was nothing other than a hybrid between a coyote and a grey wolf. This has been researched and proven by a multitude of studies since. The so called ‘Red Wolf’ program continues to this day and costs several million dollars per year. This program should have never been started and certainly not exist today. Research / google the abuses resulting to the region around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in NC perpetuated by the USFWS on behalf of the ESA (Endangered Species Act).
The USFWS on behalf of the ESA is as corrupt as the EPA in many instances. But in defense of the USFWA, they simply enforce the ESA mandates. That in itself brings in the milk money, so keep milking as one might say. These issues would be extended to the US Park Service as well but with more absolute corruption.
I could write a book about the mistakes this author makes in this piece.
It starts with the picture: A dodo. Clearly a species not driven to extinction by natural causes.
Nobody really knows what happened at the End Permian Mass Extinction event. A foremost expert on this event, Michael J. Benton, wrote a book about it: When Life Nearly Died. The answer points to global warming caused by carbondioxide increase to be possibly the main cause for the majority of the mass extinction, but it certainly was one of the factors:
http://webh01.ua.ac.be/funmorph/raoul/macroevolutie/Benton2003.pdf
http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Biodiversity/Temporary%20Transfers/Biodiversity/Chapters/Info%20to%20use/palaeo.pdf
The End Permian Extinction Event took at least a million years or so.
The trouble with these natural mass extinction events (apart from the Dinosaur extinction event) is that for all of them it took several thousands even hundreds of thousands of years to unfold. We are seriously increasing CO2 for what 50-70 years now. We don’t know what impact this increase will have on our future. But there will be warming and that’s undisputed.
And tell me: Where do all the species we have collected in Natural Reserves need to go when it gets warmer? They can’t go anywhere. So the majority of them will become extinct as well. Again we are to blame.
Just take a look at the natural history of Australia for example: Do some research how Australia was like before man arrived there and take a look at how the state of nature is currently. You will become very disappointed what man (including the natives) has destroyed on that continent alone.
The disappearance of the Pleistocene Megafauna in Eurasia, North America and Australia (again) at the end of the last Ice Age is still hotly debated in the scientific community. So it is impossible to draw any conclusions on the fact if man is to blame or not.
Mr. or Mrs. Forbes: Name one species that went extinct in the last 2000 years because of natural causes. Just name one?
I can give you a list of dozens (maybe hundreds) of species that went extinct because of humans in the last 200 years. Either by hunting or habitat destruction. Just look at how many species are now driven to the edge of becoming extinct because their numbers are so low due to man’s interference. A drought or a disease is all it takes to whipe them from the planet.
http://listverse.com/2009/07/25/10-recently-extinct-animals/
And here is the most recent extinct species: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0523-hance-christmas-island-pipistrelle.html
Yes it’s true: In the past it was natural catastrophy that killed life on Earth, but today it is man doing the job very quickly and thoroughly too. Either by overhunting, habitat destruction and in the future by changing the climate.
“The struggle for species to survive is the very driver of the process known as evolution.”
I have long maintained that “civilization” is anti-evolutionary. It protects the unfit, at the cost of weakening the race as a whole. Might seem a bit cold, but the evidence seems to support it.
ferd berple says:
June 4, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Edward Martin says:
June 4, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Why all the fuss? Darwin tells us new species are popping up right and left.
P Wilson says:
June 4, 2012 at 7:43 pm
in 2009, nearly 20,000 new species were discoveered, 41 of them mammals
===========
20,000 new species a year. A few go extinct. This does not suggest any shortages on the horizon.
reply:
Indeed! We inhabit a fantastically rich and diverse planet, (which I imagine has become more so in this temperate world climate we’re enjoying) which has seen a lot of new found species in the past decade. From 2000-2009, there were 176,311 newly discovered species. 50% are insects, 11% are plants, 7% are fungi, 5% are microbes 3% are vertebrates and the rest are invertebrates. In the Amazon alone, 1,200 species were discovered, ranging from mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and plants.
Robbie says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:01 am
So warmer is bad? Maybe we should go back to conditions of the LIA, or even before the last retreat of the ice sheets, when it must’ve been…well, cold. How cold would you like it to be?
California’s Imperial Valley is arguably the hottest region of the United States with summer daytime temperatures in the range 100-120F not uncommon. Yet, in addition to being hot as heck, the Imperial Valley is also the nation’s most productive agricultural region, so don’t let anybody fool you that warm – even hot – is all bad.
Yeah, hot weather is tough on the obese, but with air conditioning, everything is cool. It was once important for people to be able to jump up and grab at least the low-hanging fruit, but now the bar is pretty low, and we can just head for the ‘fridge, or the drive-thru. Of course, all that stuff takes power…
From the PDF on the end-Permian event (251 mya)
you linked:
Do you have any suggestions how we can avoid any future asteroid impacts, or mass volcanism? Would turning off all the coal-fired power plants do it?
But you are right about the Dodo; it was a poor choice to illustrate the article, in my opinion, but at least we have learned the real reason the Dodo went extinct: it had two left feet!
“Brian H says:
June 5, 2012 at 6:18 am
People keep citing that performance by Carlin. They misunderstand him. He was profoundly misanthropic; he wanted the planet to continue happily on its way sans humans, ASAP. A real jerkwad.
——-
Brian H: Agree fully on Your Carlin’s misantropics – regretting at same loosing that/in my (Your?) point. Sorry! – Go figure….
Brgds
//TJ
Robbie says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:01 am
I could write a book about the mistakes this author makes in this piece.
It starts with the picture: A dodo. Clearly a species not driven to extinction by natural causes.
So man is not a natural presence on this planet? Are we artificially created?
But to ask a simple question: Would the book you write on this subject be called a “bible”? Or a religious book? But insults aside for a moment, no one is saying humans should strive to drive species to extinction. I am rather glad that the buffalo was saved, as I think buffalo steaks are excellent.
Hope I did not insult you too much, and to qoute Anthony, “be as upset with me as you want.”
Like I say all the time, I just drive the cold hard truth home to others who refuse to embrace reality and live in some magical fairy tale land. Have you ever fought against invasive species yourself? Or how about the others here who think its terrible that mankind damages the environment?
I have to ask this because its important:
Have you gotten off your backside and helped the environment in some fashion instead of pontificating from your armchair about how evil man is and how everyone else should save the species while you sit on your backside?
It took just one man to save the buffalo. And it only takes one person to save a species but to do that you have to get off your butt and stop telling others they are wrong. No one is stopping you from dropping your job, internet connection and everything else and living off the land to save species. Instead of using lawyers and going against others you can save the species yourself with the right plan. Use your brain and sacrifice if it means that much to you. Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but the last person who told me I was evil for telling them that I don’t care that the dodo was extinct got an earfull for not coming with me to hunt invasive species…..(I offered and was declined because hunting and guns are bad, but I digress…)
So who is the better environmentalist (or religious person for that matter)?
The person who sacrifices for what they believe in or those who just talk a big game and don’t change their life one iota for what they pontificate?
Steve P says at June 5, 2012 at 3:08 pm
“Evidence on causation is equivocal, with support for either an asteroid impact or mass volcanism,
but the latter seems most probable.”
Have you also read the next sentence: “The extinction model involves global warming by 6°C and huge input of light carbon into the ocean-atmosphere system from the eruptions, but especially from gas hydrates, leading to an ever-worsening positive-feedback loop, the ‘runaway greenhouse’.”
Or do you just want to read the things you want and simply ignore the rest? Are you a specialist on the End Permian Extinction event?
And about the Imperial Valley. Some rivers run through it (Whitewater River, Alamo River and New River) which make irrigation possible. Without the rivers and the Salton Sea the Imperial Valley would be just as dead as Death Valley. If it gets warmer there and the Salton Sea dries out. It is game over for productivity.
Warmer is bad in that case.
Steve P., once again I am dismayed by the lack of knowledge here. “….just as dead as Death Valley” ??? – Death Valley happens to be a magnificent National Park, the largest in the contiguous 48 States. It is TEEMING with life, it has unique FISH in its creeks, for example, that are found nowhere else in the entire world. It has MANY species of unique plants, also unique snails and other creatures. Lizards, Snakes, Mammals, Birds are all richly represented. Check out “Rock Lady” and “Salt Creek Pupfish” in Google. Then tell me where you can find any plant in the world that looks like Rock Lady and grows somewhere else.
benfrommo says June 5, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Thank you very much for your insulting language towards me.
What we are doing on this planet is not natural. Building homes or skyscrapers or flying around and emit all kinds of nasty materials in our environment is not natural. Overfishing, overhunting or habitat destruction on a scale we are conducting is not natural. In all 500 million years no living species has ever destroyed so much globally like we are doing right now. Or do you know of any T-Rex cutting down forests on a scale we are or a Pteranodon overfishing the oceans? There was at least some kind of natural balance. That’s the cold hard truth. Like it or not!
I am not a religious person and neither do I live on a magical fairy tale island. And no you don’t need to fight against invasive species as long as they got there naturally. Rabbits, Feral Pigs or Cane Toads in Australia were introduced by man. Who else? Just like Goats on Galapagos. They could not have gotten there without our help and that poses a different problem. Humans are way too stupid and irresponsible to understand what they are doing with this planet. In the end we will and are going to pay the price for it. That’s the cold hard truth. Like it or not!
It’s good of you that you took the bison as an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_hunting#Comeback
http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/documents/hornaday.htm
http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/assets/Duval.pdf
It looks like the species was not saved by just one man and it seems you are the one living on a fantasy island. Thanks to many people and organisations the bison is still here. It’s a team effort.
To answer your fat-sentenced questions: Yes and I am not going to justify myself towards you.
Furthermore your whole rant has nothing to do with the subject or thread. So what’s your point exactly?
John Game says: June 5, 2012 at 4:17 pm
That remark was mine and I meant Death Valley could never become a productive area as Imperial Valley is today. Death Valley lacks a river system and a lake.
Robbie says:
“What we are doing on this planet is not natural. Building homes or skyscrapers or flying around and emit all kinds of nasty materials in our environment is not natural. Overfishing, overhunting or habitat destruction on a scale we are conducting is not natural.”
Wrong, Robbie. They are all natural. So is smallpox, and by your definition we should not have eradicated it.
The problem is that eco-fascists use arguments like yours to beat everyone over the head in order to gain political power, instead of rolling up your sleeves and doing something about it with your own money.
And where is your litany of complaints about China, Russia, India, and a hundred smaller countries that put out about a million times as much pollution as the ultra-clean U.S.? Do you think the Chinese government cares about shark fin soup fisheries?
There are no greater hypocrites on earth than environmentalists.
Robbie and Steve P., I misattributed a comment about Death Valley to Steve P when it was made by Robbie. Sorry to both of you for that. But its great that Death Valley can not become like Imperial Valley because Death Valley is fine the way it is. Also, it may not be relevant, but the Salton Sea is not natural, it was created by humans.
Robbie, I agree with your comments made at 9:01 am about the errors in the original article. I guess I don’t agree that warming is at present a major threat to species, to me its more about habitat destruction and introduced invasive species. But unlike a lot of others here, you and I seem to agree that preventing further species extinctions is very important, and that we humans have in the last few hundred years caused significant species extinctions.
Robbie: what planet did your ancestors evolve on? If they evolved here, they are by definition, natural, and anything they do is also by definition, natural. We are not the only species that alters the environment to our liking. Termites build large towers on the bush which create cool spots near the ground and large CO2 concentrations in their surroundings. Those did not exist until they built them. Some plants put out toxins either in their leaves or their root systems to kill off competing species. Those toxins did not exist until the plant put them there. Beavers build large ponds structures by damming small streams. The resulting floods often run other species out of their homes. There are many other examples of plants or animals changing the environment to suit them. This is a pretty amazing world, but the Gaea worship of the environmental movement sees only man as the problem, but we have always been part of the earth, and have always altered the environment around us for our benefit (sometimes short sighted, sometimes not). We have to be stewards of our resources, but we are most definitely natural. Our DNA screams that we could have evolved no where but here so we are therefore natural parts of this planet. To assume we are somehow above it all is a conceit that is counter to all evidence.
None of us on this board are saying “go out and slaughter all those animals to extinction, crush all those plants that don’t appear to serve a purpose”. There are a thousand people who comment here and I dare say there are probably two thousand opinions on any given topic, but what we tend to say is that we should take proven precautions for definitely identified problems (we rarely agree on either of those) and search with the scientific method (not post-normal science) for solutions to problems remaining. This board isn’t big on the precautionary principle because that way leads to all of us voluntarily climbing into our coffins for the celestial dirt nap way before it’s time, because only if we are all dead can we prevent us from doing any harm. Of course we also do no good that way.
“”””” Robbie says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:01 am
I could write a book about the mistakes this author makes in this piece.
It starts with the picture: A dodo. Clearly a species not driven to extinction by natural causes……”””””
History says that the dodo became extinct through predation by a prey species that saw the dodo as readily available food. When eating becomes un-natural, then all species will become extinct..
Smokey says:
June 5, 2012 at 5:50 pm
And where is your litany of complaints about China, Russia, India, and a hundred smaller countries that put out about a million times as much pollution as the ultra-clean U.S.? Do you think the Chinese government cares about shark fin soup fisheries?
Or about the Baiji dolphin, which China polluted into extinction, or the Yangtze River dolphin, which is rapidly heading that way?
Owen in Ga says:
June 5, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Well said Owen. Too many people try to deny us the right to act just like the rest of the natural world – to use all our resources to change our environment into one that suits us – and if it don’t suit you, well that’s tough. Adapt or die. We didn’t make the rules, but we are entitled ( as residents) to use them to our advantage.
For many years I lived in an old farmhouse together with a couple of hundred house sparrows.
( They didn’t live inside, but under the roof tiles).
I got used to them. They got used to me climbing up every so often and clearing their mess out of the gutters.
Then one year I noticed their numbers had gone down substantially. Food shortage? Better housing down the road? pesticides? Then one day i found out why.
As I climbed a ladder to cut back a large clematis that had invaded the roofvoid, I realised I was being watched – not just by my wife, dutiful at the bottom of the ladder, but by a grey squirrel.
A tree rat. All. as they say, became clear. The squirrel exited rapidly down into the garden and headed lickitty spit towards the trees…totally unaware our cat, Squeeker, was idly watching from under a bush. As Mr squirrel passed by, Squeeker arose from his hideyhole and dealt Mr S two mighty blows either side of his head. Mr S collapsed in a heap; Sqeeker peed on him and strolled off, tail in flagstaff mode and looking very pleased with himself. I inspected the prostrate squirrel, determined he was dead and buried him forthwith.
The house sparrow population climbed back to its usual level within 2 years.
Now, was Squeeker a bad cat for killing the squirrel, or a good cat for (inadvertently) protecting the sparrows?
( I occasionly wonder whether he was acting naturally or protecting his own food supply…..)
John Game says: June 5, 2012 at 6:08 pm
I agree with your comments.
And about the Salton Sea. I didn’t know that. I thought it was some leftover from the last Ice Age.
Just like the Lake Manly system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Manly_system.png
George E. Smith; says: June 5, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Wrong again about the Dodo. It became extinct by an invasive species which didn’t belong naturally on Mauritius.
Robbie, I was not going to reply, but I see that you still are stuck on this “man is not natural kick.” If we are not natural, by reasoning we must be artificial and thus be either made by God or a machine. Which is it? This is why I bring up the religious bent, because you are talking about man as if we are not a creature on this planet. That is quite humorous to be honest.
As for the buffalo, it was not a team effort. Small numbers of men working indepedently from each other all saved the buffalo. In the end, it only took one of them to save the species (or multiple species) and they did so by their own hard work and effort. This is the type of environmentalism that is good. This is what works, getting off of your backside and instead of pontificating to others what they should or shouldn’t do, doing the right thing and putting your beliefs into action and leading by example.
And since you provided a link: here are several more stories of individuals from wikipedia no less who all worked by themselves to perserve the buffalo so I can today enjoy buffalo steaks:
The famous herd of James “Scotty” Philip in South Dakota was one of the earliest reintroductions of bison to North America. In 1899, Phillip purchased a small herd (five of them, including the female) from Dug Carlin, Pete Dupree’s brother-in-law, whose son Fred had roped five calves in the Last Big Buffalo Hunt on the Grand River in 1881 and taken them back home to the ranch on the Cheyenne River. Scotty’s goal was to preserve the animal from extinction. At the time of his death in 1911 at 53, Philip had grown the herd to an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 head of bison. A variety of privately owned herds had also been established, starting from this population.
Simultaneously, two Montana ranchers, Michel Pablo and Charles Allard, spent more than 20 years assembling one of the largest collections of purebred bison on the continent (by the time of Allard’s death in 1896, the herd numbered 300). In 1907, after U.S. authorities declined to buy the herd, Pablo struck a deal with the Canadian government and shipped most of his bison northward to the newly created Elk Island National Park.[48][49] Also, in 1907, the New York Zoological Park sent 15 bison to Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma forming the nucleus of a herd that now numbers 650.
he last of the remaining “Southern Herd” in Texas were saved before extinction in 1876. Charles Goodnight’s wife, “Molly” encouraged him to save some of the last relict bison that had taken refuge in the Texas Panhandle. Extremely committed to save this herd, she went as far as to rescue some young orphaned buffaloes and even bottle fed and cared for them until adulthood. By saving these few plains bison, she was able to establish an impressive buffalo herd near the Palo Duro Canyon. Peaking at 250 in 1933, the last of the southern buffalo would become known as the Goodnight Herd.[55] The descendants of this southern herd were moved to Caprock Canyons State Park near Quitaque, Texas in 1998.[56]
There are quite a few more stories of individuals who made a difference by themselves. Have you made a difference? Until you do, there is no point in you crying here about “artificial man”.
Owen in Ga says: June 5, 2012 at 6:51 pm
You are making one mistake in your comment: Natural balance.
All the examples you came up with are somehow naturally balanced. Their numbers are ‘controlled’.
Beavers don’t live in Africa, Oceania, South America, Antarctica, most of Asia. Humans do.
Termites are almost found everywhere on Earth, but you forgot to mention that there are 2750 species of them and they all live differently. How many species of humans are there? Is it natural that one species lives all over the globe? Humans invaded every piece of land you could possibly think of.
Please name another species which has done the same naturally without the help of humans. Just name one?
You see what we have done is not natural. We evolved in Africa and we should have stayed there as some tree climbing Ape who occasionally walked upright. Our numbers were controlled by lions, panthers, hyenas and some occasional disease.
Just like the Chimpansee or the Gorilla does in Africa today.
What about the population of humans on this planet. Is it really controlled? And by what?
If you want to see another Hockey Stick: Here is one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Population_curve.svg
Tell me is such a population growth natural? There are a few organisms under the right circumstances which do the same. Pathological viruses and bacteria in a body.
Do you also know what happens in the long run with such infections? Either the infected body dies or the virus/bacteria-population is destroyed by the immune system of that body.
For humans on Earth it will be exactly the same. That’s natural.
benfrommo says: June 6, 2012 at 7:38 am
“Have you ever fought against invasive species yourself?”
“Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but the last person who told me I was evil for telling them that I don’t care that the dodo was extinct got an earfull for not coming with me to hunt invasive species…..”
To answer your first paragraph:
Well it looks like you have something with invasive species. Therefore what are you doing in North America? Why don’t you go back to Africa? It’s the place where we all came from. There is our natural habitat. That’s the place where we evolved. Not in Europe, Asia, or the Americas.
You are not native to North America. So you are an invasive species. It is that invasive species that got the bison in trouble in the first place or else it would not needed to be saved.
Or is it justified for one species to spread around the globe and invade literally every place on it and breed like crazy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Population_curve.svg
And what gives you the right to tell me that I am not allowed to place relevant comments here. I responded to this piece on top of this page. You are not even discussing or rebutting what I had brought up in my first comment. You are discussing the wrong topic here.