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Myrddin_Emrys
Mar 27, 2007

by Hand Knit
Here we have it folks:
Extinction News

BBC News posted:

The Earth has entered a new period of extinction, a study by three US universities has concluded, and humans could be among the first casualties.

The report, led by the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, said vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal.

The findings echo those in a report published by Duke University last year.

One of the new study's authors said: "We are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event."

The last such event was 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs were wiped out, in all likelihood by a large meteor hitting Earth.

"If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on," said the lead author, Gerardo Ceballos.

Pollination by bees could disappear within three generations, the report warns

The scientists looked at historic rates of extinction for vertebrates - animals with backbones - by assessing fossil records.

They found that the current extinction rate was more than 100 times higher than in periods when Earth was not going through a mass extinction event.

Since 1900, the report says, more than 400 more vertebrates had disappeared.

Such a loss would normally be seen over a period of up to 10,000 years, the scientists say.

The study - published in the Science Advances journal - cites causes such as climate change, pollution and deforestation.

Given the knock-on effect of ecosystems being destroyed, the report says benefits such as pollination by bees could be lost within three human generations.

Extinction may be more gradual than when the dinosaurs died, the report says

Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich said: "There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead.

"We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on."

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says at least 50 animals move closer to extinction every year.

Around 41% of all amphibians and 25% of mammals are threatened with extinction, it says.

According to the IUCN, the lemur faces a real struggle to avoid extinction in the wild in the coming years.

The group says that 94% of all lemurs are under threat, with more than a fifth of all lemur species classed as "critically endangered".

As well as seeing their habitat in Madagascar destroyed by illegal logging, lemurs are also regularly hunted for their meat, the IUCN says.

What were the five mass extinction events?

Last year, a report by Stuart Pimm, a biologist and extinction expert at Duke University in North Carolina, also warned mankind was entering a sixth mass extinction event.

But Mr Pimm's report said the current rate of extinction was more than 1,000 times faster than in the past, not 114, as the new report claims.

The new report's authors said it was still possible to avoid a "dramatic decay of biodiversity" through intensive conservation, but that rapid action was needed.

Well, looks like dark days (years) are ahead of us. Although I must say this comes as no surprise, we seem to be killing this planet quicker than nature could ever hope to do.

Myrddin_Emrys fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jun 20, 2015

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ass cobra
May 28, 2004

by Azathoth
Inshallah

Universe Master
Jun 20, 2005

Darn Fine Pie

gently caress vertebrates.

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005
i see no evidence of this on my drive to/from work or on tv or limbaugh
it obviously isnt happening

its a lot like that rainforest scare decades back
obviously no one intervened and the "problem" fixed itself because you never hear about it anymore

satanic splash-back
Jan 28, 2009

News article, one line post from the OP about why we should care,

Did I go back to GBS 1?

EugeneJ
Feb 5, 2012

by FactsAreUseless

quote:

animals with backbones

No goons will go extinct

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005
a live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles
structurally theres no discernible difference

NihilismNow
Aug 31, 2003

Myrddin_Emrys posted:

Here we have it folks:
Extinction News


Well, looks like dark days (years) are ahead of us. Although I must say this comes as no surprise, we seem to be killing this planet quicker than nature could ever hope to do.

We are not so much killing the planet as making it unfit for human habitation. The planet and most life on it will survive. We will probably not.

whatis
Jun 6, 2012
it says pretty clearly we're at least three generations away

sorry to my future great grandchildren

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005

whatis posted:

it says pretty clearly we're at least three generations away

sorry to my future great grandchildren
praying for sterility this generation
:pray:

whatis
Jun 6, 2012
skeletons are going to rule the world again

Lord Frankenstyle
Dec 3, 2005

Mmmm,
You smell like Lysol Wipes.
Sure it's bad, but will it impact my monthly cable bill?

Son of Rodney
Feb 22, 2006

ohmygodohmygodohmygod

I have no idea why humans would ever die out we are literally the most ressourceful species on this planet


its just our civilization that will collapse, alongside billions of people dying

Cluncho McChunk
Aug 16, 2010

An informational void capable only of creating noise

It's probably my fault, I've had some wicked diarrhoea the last few days, my bathroom's smell has been permanently altered.

a shiny rock
Nov 13, 2009

hope this thread goes extinct

Lord Frankenstyle
Dec 3, 2005

Mmmm,
You smell like Lysol Wipes.
I guess the real lesson here is that if you ever wanted to know how Lemur tastes, you better try some soon.

Toadvine
Mar 16, 2009
Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.
I should buy a gun

Drunkboxer
Jun 30, 2007

NihilismNow posted:

We are not so much killing the planet as making it unfit for human habitation. The planet and most life on it will survive. We will probably not.
Yeah we couldn't kill all life even if we tried, but we can sure gently caress it up for us. p sweet really.

I often think about this grumpy thing that Stephen Gould wrote:

"A geological insight to combat the well-meaning but seriously flawed position that "we live on a fragile planet now subject to permanent derailment by human intervention and that humans must act as stewards for this threatened world." Such views are rooted in the old sin of pride and exaggerated self-importance. We are one among millions of species, stewards of nothing. By what argument could we, arising just a geological microsecond ago, become responsible for the affairs of a world 4.5 billion years old, teeming with life that has been evolving and diversifying for at least three-quarters of that immense span? Nature does not exist for us, had no idea we were coming, and doesn't give a drat about us."

ChlorophileAddict
Jun 15, 2015

NihilismNow posted:

We are not so much killing the planet as making it unfit for human habitation. The planet and most life on it will survive. We will probably not.

or at least "mostly unfit for human habitation".
But what do we care, the sci fi writers have had time to think of several solutions

down n out
Sep 16, 2008

Nap Ghost
Humans are so dumb and greedy.

midnightclimax
Dec 3, 2011

by XyloJW

satanic splash-back posted:

News article, one line post from the OP about why we should care,

Did I go back to GBS 1?

nah there would be a 3 day probation for this sort of poo poo

Nigel Farage
Jun 20, 2015

by Ralp

(and can't post for 2 years!)

I am Trans-Species and unique.

Lord Frankenstyle
Dec 3, 2005

Mmmm,
You smell like Lysol Wipes.
What about Star Trek? We haven't even done Star Trek yet or mined the asteroids or anything.


I'm gonna jump on that as soon as I finish these Sugar Glider poppers.

Fredrik1
Jan 22, 2005

Gopherslayer
:rock:
Fallen Rib
How will this "mass extinction" affect my internet service provider?

r u ready to WALK
Sep 29, 2001

I see my decision to die childless, alone and unloved was the correct choice. No point in spending energy on all that when you can stay home playing videogames while waiting for this doomed world to end!

Myrddin_Emrys
Mar 27, 2007

by Hand Knit
I now know why I am here, and it is to witness the end of all things.

Lord Frankenstyle
Dec 3, 2005

Mmmm,
You smell like Lysol Wipes.

Myrddin_Emrys posted:

I now know why I am here, and it is to witness the end of all things.

Oh don't be so dramatic. It's only the end of all the things you love, and those that love you back.

Myrddin_Emrys
Mar 27, 2007

by Hand Knit

Frankenstyle posted:

Oh don't be so dramatic. It's only the end of all the things you love, and those that love you back.

I love nothing, and nothing loves me, sucks to be you being so wrong.

Zzulu
May 15, 2009

(▰˘v˘▰)
Can someone explain to me why the bees are going to be the end of the world and why there's nothing we can do to stop it because i've been hearing about the Bee End Time for years now but been too lazy to read up on it

PyPy
Sep 13, 2004

by vyelkin
Good

Myrddin_Emrys
Mar 27, 2007

by Hand Knit

Zzulu posted:

Can someone explain to me why the bees are going to be the end of the world and why there's nothing we can do to stop it because i've been hearing about the Bee End Time for years now but been too lazy to read up on it

Well you see, bees pollinate a third of everything we eat and play a vital role in sustaining the planet’s ecosystems. Some 84% of the crops grown for human consumption – around 400 different types of plants – need bees and other insects to pollinate them to increase their yields and quality. These include most fruits and vegetables, many nuts, and plants such as rapeseed and sunflowers that are turned into oil, as well as cocoa beans, coffee and tea. Crops grown as fodder for dairy cows and other livestock are also pollinated by bees. And it’s not only food crops that rely on bee pollination, cotton does as well. As a result, annual global crop pollination by bees is estimated to be worth $170bn.

But beyond their monetary value for maintaining our fragile food supply, bees also make an invaluable contribution to ecosystems around the world. Seeds, fruits and berries eaten by birds and small mammals are all from plants that are pollinated by bees, making them guardians of the food chain and the biodiversity of our species.

Nearly one in 10 of Europe's wild bee species face extinction, says study

Bees are industrious pollinators because they have co-evolved with flowering plants over millions of years. The bees need the flowers for food, while the flower needs the bee to reproduce. Unlike other insects, nectar and pollen from flowering plants are bees’ only food source; the sweet nectar drink gives adult bees energy. Pollen is protein-rich baby food. As the poet Kahlil Gibran beautifully put it: “To the bee, a flower is the fountain of life, and to the flower, the bee is a messenger of love.”

In the process of foraging for food, bees are designed to pollinate. If you watch a female honeybee or bumblebee on a flower, you will see she has balls of pollen on her back legs. These are collected in her pollen baskets which she takes back to the nest to feed the young after fertilising the flowers. For solitary bees, the pollen collects on the hairs on their abdomen.

So how do the bees pollinate? Quite simply, the bee gets covered in pollen, from the male part of the flower (the stamen), and deposit the grains on the female part (the stigma) of the next flower that they visit. Luckily for the plant, bees tend to visit flowers from the same plant when they are flowering rather than flit from one plant to another, so the plant is able to have sex. Once the pollen is on the stigma it moves down into the ovary where it fertilises and forms a seed. A few months later the seed grows into a fruit or vegetable. Think of an apple tree; it blossoms, is visited by bees, produces apples later in the summer containing pips (the seeds), which if planted could slowly grow into a new apple tree.

There is an apocalyptic quote attributed to Albert Einstein (although there is no proof he actually said it): “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years left to live.” It resonates with people as a plausible consequence of the bee’s demise. While the timescale is wildly exaggerated and fails to take into account man’s ingenuity, it highlights how mankind’s survival has been inextricably linked to bees. Cave drawings dating back 20,000 years depict images of honey hunting. The ancient Egyptians transported their hives along the Nile to pollinate crops and buried their pharaohs with containers full of honey to sweeten the afterlife. The antibacterial and antiseptic properties of honey have made it as important to the apothecary as the chef over the centuries, while beeswax embalmed the dead and created artificial light. In the 15th century, the pilgrim fathers took their honeybees with them to spread their farming practices and colonise the new world. The native Americans called the honeybee the “white man’s fly”. The continent had wild bees, but no honeybees, as was the case in Australasia before western settlers arrived.

There are 25,000 different bee species around the world. Only four of these species are honeybees, of which the western honeybee (Apis millifera) is the one we took to the US and then on to Australasia. Honeybees make honey. It’s their winter food, for feeding the 10,000-strong colony in the hive when it’s too cold to fly. Bumblebees don’t make honey we can harvest but they are important pollinators, too. Around 250 species of bees are different types of bumblebees. Their hairier coats can attract more pollen and they can fly at colder temperatures than honeybees. Some species are long-tongued so are better at pollinating plants with long, tubular flowers. And they are capable of “buzz pollination” – by shaking the pollen from the anthers of a flower on to the stigma of another – which is how some crops, notably tomatoes, are pollinated. While most bumblebees are wild, some species are increasingly used commercially to buzz pollinate. Research shows that under the same conditions, bumbles can actually pollinate more flowers per bee than honeybees, though a honeybee colony (50,000 bees in the summer) is much larger than a colony of bumblebees (only 250).

The vast majority of the world’s bee species are solitary bees. As their name suggests they live alone. Many are adapted to pollinate one type of plant and their life cycle is synced with the plant so they are able to pollinate it and feed their young at the same time. There’s been little research on solitary bees, but in March, the first ever assessment of all 1,965 bee species across Europe by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that almost one in 10 of Europe’s wild bee species – most of which are solitary bees – face extinction as a result of intensive farming, insecticide use and climate change.

Most people have heard about colony collapse disorder, which wiped out a third of all honeybee colonies in the US when it first struck back in 2007. The disorder is still not fully understood, but a combination of parasites, viruses, poor nutrition and pesticides are thought to be behind the widespread death of honeybees in the US, where 40% of colonies are still dying each year.

In the UK, honeybee winter losses have ranged from 10% to 33% since annual surveys began eight years ago. When inclement weather confines bees to the hive during the spring and summer they become weak and easy prey for the parasitic varroa mite to spread viruses that kill off its host.

But in many ways, the uncertain future of wild bumblebees and solitary bees is even more alarming than the honeybee death toll, since beekeepers are able to restock their hives each year.

The habitat that wild bees depend on to nest and forage is increasingly disappearing due to modern farming practices and urbanisation. Since 1945, 97% of wildflower meadows in the UK have vanished. During that time two bumblebee species have become extinct, and of the 24 species left only eight are commonly found. Globally, a quarter of the world’s 250 bumblebee species are thought to be facing some degree of extinction risk, according to the IUCN.

John Muir, a giant of the conservation movement, summed up the importance of bees to the human race when he said: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” We harm them at our peril.

Sorry for the tl;dr, I hope this makes up for my one line post quote OP

Myrddin_Emrys fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Jun 20, 2015

r u ready to WALK
Sep 29, 2001

Who wants to start a quadcopter pollination research project with me, I want to see drones of all sizes buzzing around, bumping uglies with all the crops and flowers.

Problem solved!

smg77
Apr 27, 2007
I hope all humans die and cats take over the planet.

Hector Beerlioz
Jun 16, 2010

aw, hec
I don't see how this will effect me as a small businesses owner and job creator

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005

Myrddin_Emrys posted:

The vast majority of the world’s bee species are solitary bees. As their name suggests they live alone.
whoa whoa slow down egghead youre going a mile a minute

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Et2U2kPmE

Hector Beerlioz
Jun 16, 2010

aw, hec

triggered. kill all men and bees

Zzulu
May 15, 2009

(▰˘v˘▰)
cant we just pollinate stuff ourselves

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005

Zzulu posted:

cant we just pollinate stuff ourselves
some flowers are just asking for it

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Zzulu
May 15, 2009

(▰˘v˘▰)
we dont deserve to live as a species if we can't figure out how to do the job bees do


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