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Or you can look at it this way. If you take religion out of the equation, people and all they do are very much a part of nature, evolved to be what they are and do what they do. The human race will run its course just like every other animal species that ever existed has, and will eventually become extinct and the earth will carry on, create and rejuvenate other and new species. The cycle will continue. We just won't be around to see it.
You'd have to take religion and science and technology out of the equation for humans to be as much a part of nature as everything else is.
But I agree with you that the human species is rapidly running its course towards the exit door labelled EXTINCTION. What it makes me think of is that humans have been slowly cooking in a pot at a low gentle simmer for a million +/- years and all of a sudden in the past 200 years somebody turned up the heat and the pot has started boiling over and is soon to boil dry.
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With regard to the topic about this virus I was looking at the lists of animals that have been effected by it so far and noted that none of them are herbivores. They're all carnivorous with some being omnivores, but carnivorism seeming to be the greatest common factor. Most birds have carnivorous natures, as do all fish, so I'm wondering if some kinds of fish are succumbing to the virus too. I'm also wondering if all of us humans who eat meat, eggs and dairy products are going to become susceptible to the same virus.
We might be getting a sneak peek of what really happened to the animals of the dinosaurs' era when they got wiped out. Except this time it will be us humans who are the dinosaurs and all the herbivores that remain alive will become the newest superior species.
Disease can wipe out an entire species, reveals a new study on rats native to Australia's Christmas Island that fell prey to "hyperdisease conditions" caused by a pathogen that led to the rodents' extinction.
The study, published in the latest issue of the journal PLoS One, presents the first evidence for extinction of an animal entirely because of disease.
In all likelihood there have been many, particularly in prehistoric times, but we just don't know about them.
Or you can look at it this way. If you take religion out of the equation, people and all they do are very much a part of nature, evolved to be what they are and do what they do. The human race will run its course just like every other animal species that ever existed has, and will eventually become extinct and the earth will carry on, create and rejuvenate other and new species. The cycle will continue. We just won't be around to see it.
In ancient history, when one species becomes extinct another rises to take it's place. Think Marsupial lion. The replacement for humanoids could be based on birds or reptiles or even fish.
We can't be competing with birds for bugs (for dinner), now can we? It's bad enough they plan on putting wind turbines along the Atlantic coast and elsewhere, and we're already destroying their habitat. Seems like avian flu will eliminate some competition for food. I wonder if a decade or two after I'm dead, people will have to go to a "bird zoo" to see birds.
In only recent years there are 318 species of animals that have gone extinct in a domino effect due to infectious diseases and illnesses caused by humans introducing pathogens and other interferences to those species in nature.
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Please document that it was ever any infectious agent....ALL of the extinctions in the last century or two were among speices limited to island environments where habitat was seriously diminshed by human activity. https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/16/...last-50-years/
The "Life Expectancy" of a species is ~ 10^6 yrs and there are ~ 10^6 species, so we should should see 1 extention /yr-- but we don't see that many. In fact, we're finding new species faster than we're seeing extinctions...(Maybe The Creationists are right?)
In the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, can you name even one species that went extinct due to an infectious agent?...Pathogens/hosts exist in a dynamic balance just like the classic deer/wolf interaction.
Fear mongering is a preferred technique of bureaucrats and researchers to gain more funding.
How's that polar bear population, which was to have gone extinct by now, doing?
In fact, we're finding new species faster than we're seeing extinctions...(Maybe The Creationists are right?)
Most animal species being found are invertebrates, and they aren't really "new", so they aren't making up for the loss to extinctions. And most species being lost are also most likely invertebrates, the extinction of which are very difficult to prove. Bringing it back on topic I have no idea how many, if any, are lost to contagious disease, and I don't think anybody does.
Most animal species being found are invertebrates, and they aren't really "new", so they aren't making up for the loss to extinctions. And most species being lost are also most likely invertebrates, the extinction of which are very difficult to prove. Bringing it back on topic I have no idea how many, if any, are lost to contagious disease, and I don't think anybody does.
it's a red herring anyway. species don't have to go extinct via disease for the disease to be a serious problem.
I just looked at the map in one of the links and wonder why Minnesota has so many more than the other states. Is it because of their numerous lakes? I would have guessed a state that is a big destination for migratory birds.
why is your premise that we only need to be concerned about extinction events?
Analogous to suffering from an illness for an individual-- if it doesn't kill you, and you make as full recovery, did the illness really matter?
If not extenction, then what exactly is the point of the OP?
Populations are always in a dynamic equilibrium. They fluctuate up and down around K- the carrying capacity. Wide deviations from K will eventually either recover or become an extinction event....If the factors influencing K (like diseases) change K, then the population finds a new equilibrium state....If you add more wolves to the forest, the deer population comes down a little, but things still balance out.
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Originally Posted by Deserterer
Most animal species being found are invertebrates, and they aren't really "new", so they aren't making up for the loss to extinctions. And most species being lost are also most likely invertebrates, the extinction of which are very difficult to prove. Bringing it back on topic I have no idea how many, if any, are lost to contagious disease, and I don't think anybody does.
Almost all "extinctions" of late have been invertebrates. There have been fewer than 200 extinctions of large vertebrates over the last 400 yrs, and almost all of them have been in small populations living only on an island....Extinction is the natural destiny of all species.
When the environment changes enough that K is signifcantly altered, a population may tend to fall below the critical level towards extinction UNLESS there is a large enough frequency in the breeding population of some fortutitous, mutant allele that allows the population to survive-- possibly with a gene frequency so different that it is now deemed a new species....
Those mutants are much more likely to be found in large populations with more generalist lifestyles than some small, highly specialized species....That little pond with the only population of yellow bellied, slant eyed stickleback fish in the world that is preventing us from building the new off-ramp to the Interstate is just NEVER gunna be the savior of Vertebrate Class Pisces, no matter how much the climate changes. In fact, it'll be the first to go.
We need more trust in Mother Nature. She's much more competent than many apparently think.
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