Extinction events

***Earniel*** · 08-07-2010, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingwe

As long ago as that may have been, we're sort of over-due for an extinction event.

Over-due? We're already in an extinction event right now, why would you need another one!?

inked · 08-09-2010, 07:02 PM

Gee, what extinction event are we in RIGHT NOW?

***Earniel*** · 08-10-2010, 07:27 AM

*shrugs* If you're going to be like that I'm not going to bother. Things like the amphibian decline, white-nose-syndrome, shark decimation, habitat loss and degradation, bush meat trade, ivory smuggle, the very, very long IUCN red list of threathened and endangered species, etc... aren't going away just because you don't think they matter.

inked · 08-10-2010, 11:03 PM

I did not know these were labelled as extinction event(s). Your list does not approach that of the K-T boundary extinction(s).

A wee bit over dramatic, perhaps?

GrayMouser · 08-11-2010, 12:45 AM

Her's one of the thousand references out there.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0109074801.htm

The most conservative estimate -very, very conservative, and almost certainly a drastic underestimate- is that current extinction rates are about 100x the background rate (the level of species extinction whch occurs under normal conditions)

Some estimates put it at 1000x times the background rate (as we learn of more species, we learn how many moreare being wiped out
Try Googling " Holocene Extinction Event" .

Though I'm sure all those biologists are flat-out lying in order to get research grants- just like the climatologists.

BTW, funny we haven't heard anything after all those 'climategate' accusations were shown to be a crock- though of course all the investigations that cleared those involved must have been part of the conspiracy, too.

***Earniel*** · 08-11-2010, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inked

I did not know these were labelled as extinction event(s). Your list does not approach that of the K-T boundary extinction(s).

A wee bit over dramatic, perhaps?

No, of course these aren't labelled as extinction events seperately, but they're all attributing to one. An extinction event does not have to have a single cause, it is merely a term for a period where the number of species decline significantly. Not all extinctions have to be as dramatic as the K-T extinction to be labelled an extinction event.

Count Comfect · 08-11-2010, 12:53 PM

Eärniel is right; an extinction event is not an event in the sense of a single action that happens in a single moment or from a single cause (like a meteor striking the earth, say) but rather a term used to describe a small (on a geological scale) period in which species extinction rates climb dramatically relative to the background rate, for whatever reason.

08-09-2010, 07:02 PM	#2
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Gee, what extinction event are we in RIGHT NOW? __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941

08-10-2010, 07:27 AM	#3
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	shrugs If you're going to be like that I'm not going to bother. Things like the amphibian decline, white-nose-syndrome, shark decimation, habitat loss and degradation, bush meat trade, ivory smuggle, the very, very long IUCN red list of threathened and endangered species, etc... aren't going away just because you don't think they matter. __________________ We are not things.

08-10-2010, 11:03 PM	#4
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	I did not know these were labelled as extinction event(s). Your list does not approach that of the K-T boundary extinction(s). A wee bit over dramatic, perhaps? __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941

08-11-2010, 12:45 AM	#5
GrayMouser Elf Lord Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Ilha Formosa Posts: 2,068	Her's one of the thousand references out there. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0109074801.htm The most conservative estimate -very, very conservative, and almost certainly a drastic underestimate- is that current extinction rates are about 100x the background rate (the level of species extinction whch occurs under normal conditions) Some estimates put it at 1000x times the background rate (as we learn of more species, we learn how many moreare being wiped out Try Googling " Holocene Extinction Event" . Though I'm sure all those biologists are flat-out lying in order to get research grants- just like the climatologists. BTW, funny we haven't heard anything after all those 'climategate' accusations were shown to be a crock- though of course all the investigations that cleared those involved must have been part of the conspiracy, too. __________________ Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, but pigs treat us as equals."- Winston Churchill

08-11-2010, 12:53 PM	#7
Count Comfect Word Santa Claus Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 2,922	Eärniel is right; an extinction event is not an event in the sense of a single action that happens in a single moment or from a single cause (like a meteor striking the earth, say) but rather a term used to describe a small (on a geological scale) period in which species extinction rates climb dramatically relative to the background rate, for whatever reason. __________________ Sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall.

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