Scientist: Human race to be extinct within 100 years

[Speck Tater]

Human race 'will be extinct within 100 years', claims leading scientist

By Niall Firth (UK Daily Mail)

As the scientist who helped eradicate smallpox he certainly know a thing or two about extinction. And now Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has predicted that the human race will be extinct within the next 100 years.

He has claimed that the human race will be unable to survive a population explosion and 'unbridled consumption.’ Fenner told The Australian newspaper that 'homo sapiens will become extinct, perhaps within 100 years.' 'A lot of other animals will, too,' he added.

'It's an irreversible situation. I think it's too late. I try not to express that because people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off.'

More at the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1287643/Human-race-extinct-100-years-population-explosion.html#

[Oregone]

1. Good riddence humans

They had a good run

[fascisthunter]

2. yet the idiots and greedy sociopaths will not heed a word

just as all other warnings get ignored this one will too unless we, who understand take charge!

[mod mom]

3. It's the reason there's an asset grab and development of private mercenaries.

[IDemo]

6. +1

The biggest story of our age goes largely unreported.

[fascisthunter]

15. yup yup

[JHB]

96. Yep. And it's not even new...

I first read of someone using the "if we're all rats in a sinking ship, be the top rat" excuse sometime in '80s.

It was self-serving blindness then, and even moreso now.

[Oregone]

8. You think this is a "warning"?

I think its a statement. Idiots and sociopaths aside, our entire way of life is spearheading mass extinction, from a social and economic level. Even the smartest, most open minded are drawing blanks for what people must really do to deal with the impending crisis. All the arm waving and "green" sentimentality in the meantime is just a distraction while we head for death.

[IDemo]

4. Doubtful on the complete extinction

But highly likely on a large reduction in the population following catastrophic climate change and a wind-down of industrial farming.

[Oregone]

12. Aside from climate change...

We are dealing with mass pollution and the scarcity of resources (which causes economic and political crisis, leading to wars). We don't know what the future holds after the majority of the population raises their standard of living and increases demand on a slew of products (thus, requiring consumption to multiply far beyond its current levels).

[IDemo]

17. True

I left out: Peak Oil, water and topsoil depletion, ocean acidification, etc.

As well as the casualties from resource wars. And people still dance with joy at the arrival of a new baby..

[Oregone]

24. Don't forget toxic metal contamination

All those metals needed for everything from an iPod to an electric car. The more people who want these things, is the more we will mine, and the more that make it to waterways. Then pollution from mass agriculture, which will need to vastly expand as people get raised out of relative poverty.

[reggie the dog]

146. I have one child

and yes i was very happy the day i had her. I dont want to have any more children. seeing as i am divorced from her mother i hardly get to see her anymore anyways so yeah I have to wonder why the hell i was so happy when she was born

[roguevalley]

97. its going to be awful. 2 billion starving people in the east start

walking to europe and the western hemisphere won't be good either. I only feel sorry for the young. I don't for myself.

[meow mix]

109. id imagine a future like that in "12 monkeys"

last remnents of human kind living underground.. surface uninhabited for a thousand years.

[Juche]

113. I don't think we can go extinct

About 70,000 years ago giant volcanos killed all but 10,000 humans, but the race survived.

Even if you kill 99% of us that still leaves 68 million people. The earth's population around 0 BCE was 250 million.

Industrial civilization as we know it may collapse, but you can't kill all 6.8 billion people.

[undeterred]

5. The corporate masters will find a way to survive

even if they are no longer masters of everything.

[Sheepshank]

11. reminds me of the cockroach on Wall-e

[Octafish]

23. Paraguay.

¿ Paraguay? ¡Porque no!. And the roaches found their next hotel, where they can survive what they did to ail us.

[1Hippiechick]

7. It's already begun...in the Gulf of Mexico - Russian scientists have already

predicted that the potential exists to wipe out North America due to the acid rain from the chemical solvent that will evaporate and rain back down as acid rain, not to mention the impact on the food chain, etc.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Well as long as Tony 'Soulless Bastard' Hayward remains 'unscathed' and gets his life back, what's

the harm? :silly:

[dixiegrrrrl]

I missed that. Can you share the link?

Meanwhile, officials down here on the Gulf are helping with the extinction.
They have opened the beaches to swimming, because there is no "visible oil" today.
And they say there is no oil on the shrimp, so brown shrimp season may open in 2 weeks.

No one is testing for the dispersants and other toxic materials in the water, tho.

[1Hippiechick]

62. Sure! Here's the link - from the European Union Times....

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot Moderator Democratic Underground)

http://www.eutimes.net/2010/05/toxic-oil-spill-rains-warned-could-destroy-north-america/

Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America
Posted by Europe on May 24th, 2010 // 233 Comments


A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American continent with “total destruction”.

Russian scientists are basing their apocalyptic destruction assessment due to BP’s use of millions of gallons of the chemical dispersal agent known as Corexit 9500 which is being pumped directly into the leak of this wellhead over a mile under the Gulf of Mexico waters and designed, this report says, to keep hidden from the American public the full, and tragic, extent of this leak that is now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day.

The dispersal agent Corexit 9500 is a solvent originally developed by Exxon and now manufactured by the Nalco Holding Company of Naperville, Illinois that is four times more toxic than oil (oil is toxic at 11 ppm (parts per million), Corexit 9500 at only 2.61ppm). In a report written by Anita George-Ares and James R. Clark for Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. titled “Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Three Corexit Products: An Overview” Corexit 9500 was found to be one of the most toxic dispersal agents ever developed. Even worse, according to this report, with higher water temperatures, like those now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, its toxicity grows.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in discovering BP’s use of this dangerous dispersal agent ordered BP to stop using it, but BP refused stating that their only alternative to Corexit 9500 was an even more dangerous dispersal agent known as Sea Brat 4.

The main differences between Corexit 9500 and Sea Brat 4 lie in how long these dangerous chemicals take to degrade into their constituent organic compounds, which for Corexit 9500 is 28 days. Sea Brat 4, on the other hand, degrades into an organic chemical called Nonylphenol that is toxic to aquatic life and can persist in the environment for years.

[SidDithers]

85. EUTimes is not a credible source...

in fact, your linked article traces back to Sorcha Faal, who's as nutty as they come.

Sorcha Faal also believes the Deepwater Horizon was blown up by the North Koreans.
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1367.htm


More nuttiness from Faal here:
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index632.htm


Sid

[SemiCharmedQuark]

89. ROFLOL...good grief...

Where did you dig up that source?

[SidDithers]

91. Seriously...

read some of Sorcha Faal's ramblings.

You might want to have a few drinks first, to heighten the experience.

And DU'ers lap it up as gospel, just 'cause it's on the internet. :banghead:

Sid

[SemiCharmedQuark]

94. Whatever happens to humans, our platitudes will never die.

Sometimes scientists engage in hyperbole or say stupid shit. I look forward to the headline "Scientist who helped crack structure of DNA says some races inherently inferior!!!!"

[Silent3]

156. Not just because it's on the internet...

...but because it's on the internet and says something really terrible and tragic is going to happen, something which happens to match their need to say "I told you so!" and justifies a near-constant state of alarmism.

[Sheepshank]

9. not buying it

the warnings are dire and the idea needs immediate addressing on a global scale, but 100 years? Cummon
Even good scientists can get a little potty with time

[Oregone]

18. Just consider

The globe is at 6 billion people heading to 9 billion. Of those, only about 10% have the potential to a high standard of living, as defined in the west, and many of those are below poverty level. So, we have very few people actually creating tipping point levels of consumption on earth. What happen when we double and triple the number of high level consumers/producers? Just look how much CO2 China released to build up their country, to position it for first world status (and its not even there yet, with a population brimming with consumers). Not only will all the rising industrial countries need massive consumption of the earth's resources to raise up, but they will need even more to sustain themselves. We are talking, if this lifestyle spread globally (as capitalism wants it to, to produce more consumers), a 1500% increase in day to day consumption (after development too). To top that off, the current standard of living in western countries must continue to rise, and production must continue to go on, or else everyone will run out of jobs and not be able to afford products. Our economic system demands we essentially produce to death.

It scary to imagine what the world will look like just doubling the amount of people demanding products containing lead, mercury, cadmium, etc, and releasing CO2 during production.

[Sheepshank]

22. I didn't mean to imply

that no changes are needed. In fact I think I stated otherwise. But I have a little more faith in the idea that as slow as they are coming, the path of changes will NOT lead to the extinction of the human race within 100 years.

[Oregone]

31. The change needed is everyone living in straw huts

Ok, thats a bit hyperbolic, but there will need to be a global cooperative movement to regress our average global standard of living. This wont happen. Instead, we will die. Its a bleak reality. Technological adjustments will only mitigate much of the destruction, and may act to hide much of the effects of over-consumption until its too late. Drinking water...thatll be more important that the temperature of the earth IMO.

[The Traveler]

29. I can't dismiss it

Population growth, consumption, and pollution are all proceeding more or less along exponential curves. The problem with that is that exponential curves really take off, eventually ... and we are used to think in linear (straight line) terms. Also, ecosystems can collapse suddenly rather than gradually. The bear up under stress until suddenly they don't. The oceanographer Sylvia Earle likened the process to adding vinegar drop by drop to a bowel of milk ... that last critical drop falls, and the milk curdles.

We have had the fundamental issues scoped out since the late sixties ... but damn little has been done by either private or public sectors to deal with the emerging problems. And even now, at this late hour, there are many who refuse to admit that the problems are real.

So, I can't dismiss it. Hope he's wrong. Have a nagging fear he isn't.

Trav

[Umbral]

10. Doubtful, but humanity hasn't had a serious population correction since the middle ages. We're due.

[Hawkowl]

21. 1492 -1600 Correction

I think you forgot the "population correction", er extinction of, native North and South Americans. It has been estimated that the population of the America's were about 300 million before Columbus arrived. 100 years later disease had wiped out 99% of the indigenous population.

So people who think a massive human die off by some incurable disease is mere science fiction are forgetting history. And yes, humanity is overdue.

[SidDithers]

87. Who estimated the population of the Americas was 300 million before Columbus?...nt

Sid

[Hawkowl]

92. Jared Diamond

I believe I read it in the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel". He did cite references.

[SidDithers]

95. Thanks for the cite...

consensus opinion puts the population closer to 50 million, with the caveat that it's notoriously difficult to estimate indiginious populations.

Sid

[Hawkowl]

103. Consensus survivors?

So I think the consensus surviving indigenous peoples were about 3 million? So even using 3/50 millions means a 94% die off rate. So a similar event (not improbable considering superbugs resistant to antibiotics and genetic tinkering) would reduce the worlds population to 400 - 500 million.

[intheflow]

28. I agree.

"Population correction" is a good phrase, and much closer to what is likely to happen. Like cockroaches, I think there are too many humans for us to become extinct in so short a time (barring a nuclear winter or asteroid).

[lumberjack_jeff]

36. Population correction and extinction are two very different things. n/t

[SoCalDem]

43. Our friends at the pretrochemical companies will help with thinning the herd

:(

[GreenStormCloud]

70. 1918. In a few months an extimated 5 to 10% of earth's humans died.

It was the Great Flu Epidemic.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. He's an optimist.

Personally, I don't give 'em 50 years. I've seen the Soylent Green days coming for some time, and now they're around the corner.

To quote another Heston character- "God damn you! God damn you all to HELL!!!"

[femrap]

33. I saw the movie when it

came out...luckily I'm old. And just recently saw it again. It doesn't seem that far-fetched now.

[lumberjack_jeff]

37. Maybe the apes will do better. n/t

[alterfurz]

57. recently seen bumpersticker: "The Mayans were optimists"

[frustrated_lefty]

16. In Germany, you are paid 30k(?) to have a child.

[Donnachaidh]

20. and how many uber-religious in this country (can you say DUGGAR?) are popping out spawn yearly?

Germany's population is declining.

But here? And in countries where Catholicism controls the populace? We're the equivalent of cockroaches. We're overdue for a huge correction -- and it's all our OWN fault.

[frustrated_lefty]

38. Agree and disagree.

Catholic countries tend to breed like bunnies. We're going to pay for it in the long run.

Unlike many here, though, I don't castigate the Duggars. From what little I know, they are a good family, they take care of their kids. That puts them head and shoulders above most parents in this country. I just can't bring myself to be pissed at a family having a lot of kids, as long as they take care of them. It's more than I could handle.

[Donnachaidh]

45. the Duggars are pushing out babies for MONEY - period.

Sorry -- but they *ain't* Ozzie and Harriet. Those kids who look so wonderful are going to nosedive once the cameras go away for good. Will you think as highly of the vagina-as-clown-car family when their kids are doing rehab reality shows?

And that doesn't even touch on the irresponsibility of pumping out kids when the world is as over-populated as it is.

[reggie the dog]

148. breed like bunnies????

france is catholic and we dont even average 3 kids per couple

Of 192 countries in the world Catholic Italy comes in at 191st, Spain comes in at 172nd place, Poland is 169th, Portugal 165th, Andorra 164th, France 152, and Protestant USA at 139.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off

ain't that the truth.

[branders seine]

25. well, humanity seems to have gone extinct quite some time ago.

It's about time humans caught up...

[Jkid]

26. This is the beginning of our end.

Born of our ignorance and self-destruction...

[Baclava]

27. "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -

- Popular Mechanics, 1949.


"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943


"But what...is it good for?"
- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip


Humans are really bad at predicting the future.

[eShirl]

49. Humans are really bad at facing the truth, too. n/t

[pundaint]

54. Yeah, Orwell was off by 17 years.

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. He needs to be more specific.

People can't conceptualize. He has to explain how the process will take place. Bring the issue home to those fools that think that 19 kid households are helping humanity in any way.

[PATRICK]

39. It is simplistically stated

perhaps a result of article headline sensationalism or the limitations of the scientist.

It might be more thorough to do the awesome task of delineating the entire phase we are in, one truly of intelligent design" when that intelligence(human) is too flawed to deal with the progress of its own non-natural creations. It is no argument we are definitely bringing the worst to bear upon all situations within sight and grudgingly, blindly weakly proposing better thinking(better everything) which solutions to the growing cancers become harder and harder, less sure and more unappetizing from conception to any application.

It seems all human progress in any sense, a likely natural product of any intelligent tool-making species is hitting a number of truly global walls. Some of those walls are even in the fantasy adaptable corrupt money economy. Horrors. At the same time it is evident that same inevitable progress by intelligence swiftly "evolving" its world before itself is also holding the tools to coping with and changing itself by surrendering its destiny to progressive intelligence. DNA, knowledge of human mind and history, political experience means we are entering the so called "uncharted waters" but with the compass and the tiller locked away from the hands that truly know how to use them. It is hard to imagine burnout intelligence on other worlds(which we may also be on the cusp of encountering too late). Or success stories. Self evolving intelligence and mastery of the environment seems head on colliding with utter self destruction, no choice, no middle ground, no refuge.

The realization that the wrong humans and the wrong thinking is in actual tyrannical charge of just about everything has not borne enough fruit- and that is putting it mildly. It may just be too much a struggle to honestly face facts and die in our shame than to turn around what appears to be inevitable in nearly every crisis fast approaching. Fixing one to get back to an unsustainable normal, settling on a crude Road Warrior future dystopia, no longer even seem pessimistically reasonable. A very, very few existing underground as it were the moon would be extremely likely to once again the wrong people to reasonably survive. There could be a slender thread to preserve a sliver of humanity(or stored knowledge or DNA) but in light of our spectacular failure to morally(wisdom, hard united work) get our globe under law and the real "best" there is even slenderer hope that some future revival would be any better.

In any future, doomed or otherwise, we require the best minds and best moral foot forward(not again the cruelest misinterpretation of non-thinking Darwinism). Fundamentally we are just screwing around patting ourselves on the back for small efforts and dramatizing the battle against overwhelming morons which should have ended long ago to have any chance of really reaching the next step in natural embryonic intelligence.

There is still time to do what has to be done, or suffer a natural intelligent species miscarriage. Following all these possibilities in every field gives one only the assurance that when the Titanic goes down with a couple of leaky lifeboats in an empty ocean someone actually might know what is happening at that moment but without enough to know how they got there.

[femrap]

32. I don't understand

why people want to bring children into this horrid world right now. I guess it's just selfishness or willful ignorance.

Most people suck imho.

[Oregone]

34. Why not?

In the grand scheme of things, it hurts the world no more than recycling individually helps the world. Another soul or two in the bandwagon of death won't speed it up any.

Look...the whole shithouse is coming down. Time to get your kicks. Have a family. Have a picnic. Enjoy life. Pretend the bodies strewn around you are plastic mannequins.

[femrap]

35. I see....

you're one of the selfish ones. Maybe that 'new and improved flu bug' will get you first! And you can join the mannequins.

[Oregone]

42. Aren't we all?

Im only human

[LanternWaste]

65. Nope.

"Aren't we all?"

Nope.

[Oregone]

72. Good point, Jesus

[Sheepshank]

47. well well

aren't you a ray of fucking sunshine lol

Just had to find a way to interject this one liner. Sorry you were on the receiveing end. But seriously, I just can't get myself to truly believe that it is as you think it is. Human kind is not doomed in 100 years because od expolding population and irreversable resource damage. That is limited geography thinking and not global theory. Self fulfilling prophecy can't even work in this scenario. The postive reactions and changes will easily dilute the sum total of the negative. Easily.

The only way the population will be eliminated in the next 100 years is not by extinction, but by some act of total planetary inniahlation via war....not because of the demands on populations and resources. Nor can I accept the trite doctrines spouted here that humans deserve this outcome...nor that people are stupid or selfish for wanting to have a child or two and enjoy that type of company. I buy the modern day dooms day predictors with as much trpidation as I buy Nostradamus predictions....bunk.

[Oregone]

74. Peak availability of resources can surely contribute to such wars you cite

If we are to double or triple the amount of consumption, production of these resources will not keep pace with demand. Prices will skyrocket, and war will become lucrative. You may see the trillions of dollars lithium in Afghanistan double. Wars is on the horizon as much as pollution due to over expansion.

[femrap]

123. I think it would be very

easy for humans to end....the sun moves closer or further away. Or the Earth tilts on its axis. Never mind all the nukes we have. The Solar System is a very delicate operating system.

It could be over in the blink of an eye.

[eShirl]

50. sorry, but bringing a child into this world to live, at this point is history, is an act of cruelty

[Sheepshank]

51. no, it's not

it's an act of love and hope.

[eShirl]

53. no, it's not.

[Sheepshank]

55. any actual rebuttal

other than mimic?

your statement is bunk and hold no global truth. The statement is so easily turned around. Perhaps, promoting the ideology of not procreating could be considered selfish, and a reflection of misery, lost hope, and projection of self fulfilling prophecy, self destructive actions...nothing noble. Give up, lay down and die? Hardly.

[eShirl]

58. You offered a different opinion, not really any argument to rebut.

Your opinion didn't convince me to change mine. That is all.

[theHandpuppet]

86. Or an act of selfishness

If you don't care about family planning, you don't give a crap about the future of this planet. There. I've said it.

[Oregone]

73. Life is cruel

Always has been. If we submitted to this reality, no children would ever be born. Humans have a desire to reproduce, and some, to enjoy family based life while avoiding environmental pains. Thats what I will do as a human.

[Name removed]

76. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Warren DeMontague]

120. There is more than one way to create a whole bunch of people, huh?

[Lucian]

138. Agreed.

:thumbsup:

[Arugula Latte]

40. Sad to say, if any species deserves extinction it's ours.

after what we've done to the flora and fauna of this beautiful planet ...

[Sheepshank]

48. I resent your assumption

That all humans deserve to die because of the actions of a few. Nice.

[Oregone]

79. Those actions of a few enable the standard of living of everyone else

We are all part of this big mechanism, one way or another. We provide the demand for the very production that is destroying the globe, or the wars used to fulfill it. Yes, there are a few indigenous people living simply, out of this bloody machine, but thats about it

BTW, "resent" is a human construct. Its beyond irrelevant once we are all gone. No worries.

[mike_c]

107. if you really think you don't share responsibility then you are part of the problem....

Too many humans, too many consumers. You and I are among them, and if-- like me-- you're in the U.S. or Europe, you use disproportionate amounts of resources every single day of your life. Yes, we are just as responsible as anyone else. For every greedy resource extractor, there are thousands of consumers providing the impetus for that greed.

[proteus_lives]

64. We're the most successful species for a reason.

[Oregone]

80. Define success

Cats don't do dick compared to humans, and they get to enjoy most of the comforts of technology. If you look at effort to output, they have us beat purfectly.

[proteus_lives]

105. Adaptability.

We will survive where cats won't. We live where they don't, we eat what they won't and can't.

As for cats, we keep them as pets, we've used them for clothes, religion and food. They're nice service animals.

[Oregone]

117. Thats your own definition though

The way I see it, they ride the gravy train producing nothing but feces.

We survive where cats wont? How do you figure? They've rode man's coat tails into inhabitable lands, as far as space

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUIokQ36rbA

[proteus_lives]

121. "We survive where cats wont? How do you figure?"

"They've rode man's coat tails into inhabitable lands, as far as space"

Did they go there themselves? Would they survive there without us? No.

[Oregone]

122. Thats part of how badass they are

We take care of them. All the reward. None of the work.

[proteus_lives]

132. "We take care of them"

Actually, we're closer a god-figure to them.

We care for them, love them, feed them....or...we hate them, we kill them or we ignore them.

I'll take a little work over not having another species decide whither I live or die.

[TheKentuckian]

125. They got on okay before us. Maybe not in the form of Cleo clawing the blinds

but cats were doing fine. Top line predators.

[proteus_lives]

133. "Top line predators"

Prey turned tool-users wins every time.

The predators are on our laps or on our walls.

[pipi_k]

128. Oh, I dunno...

Unless and until we can last as long as the dinosaurs did, we probably shouldn't be running around calling ourselves the most successful species...

Just a thought...

;)

[proteus_lives]

131. Oh I dunno....

Adaptability.

[ShamelessHussy]

41. that may be why TPTB/Elites are acting like there's no tomorrow

why put any effort into containment and cleanup of the gulf when they can use that money to party till we drop?

[Desertrose]

44. Nah.

[and-justice-for-all]

46. I do not see complete extintion in 100 years...nt

[BrentWil]

52. A rather negative statement, given that human population will soon start to decline

Development, education and technology are radically changing the means that we live. This has helped humans change some very basic things, such as the amount that we reproduce.

Frankly, I think we are heading towards a golden age, not the end. Are there problems? No question. But you have to look at the wider picture (less people hungry, cleaner technology, longer life, etc) People have been claiming the world will end for a long time, but humanity keeps improving its condition. People are always negative in the face of facts that provide evidence that the world really isn't that bad of a place.

[DFW]

56. Nonsense

I bet it takes at least 110 years, maybe even longer than that.

[old mark]

59. Probably be a great thing for everybody else...I hope someone at the end manages to say "sorry"...nt

[treestar]

60. BS

Whoever's alive in 2110 can pull this out and point fingers at the long dead idiot.

[SidDithers]

88. 100 year predictions are easy...

'cause the predictor is never around to be proven wrong.

Sid

[Bluebear]

61. For this I quit smoking?

:mad:

[glitch]

82. Looks like we picked the wrong year / decade / century / millenium / era / epoch.

Quitting smoking right before human extinction, boy do I feel foolish. :evilgrin:

[Oregone]

83. You'll have more energy to enjoy the show

[eowyn_of_rohan]

102. lol

I used to say the world is going to end anyway so I might as well smoke (but I hoped it wouldn't actually be true)

[proteus_lives]

63. I highly doubt it.

[greytdemocrat]

81. Exactly

I don't care how many books this old fart has written, that claim
is one of the stupidest things I've read in quite a while.

And it's no surprise the DU Doom & Gloom Squad loves it.

Jesus H. Christ.

[SidDithers]

90. +1...

I can feel DU getting dumber by the day.

Sid

[LanternWaste]

66. Humanity has persevered through adversarial conditions

Humanity has persevered through adversarial conditions throughout its history. I see few (valid) reasons to disbelieve we'll throw down the towel on this one...

But then again, I am ever the optimist when it comes to people-- else I'd simply lie down and await yet another preordained end of the world.

"The end is near" "Flood, fire, famine!"

[chrisa]

67. I was hoping it would be zombies

If you're going to go extinct, at least go out in a cool way like that. Also, they only eat humans, so no animals would be hurt in the process.

:fistbump:

[conscious evolution]

68. Symbolicly,what is the difference?

[LanternWaste]

69. Afterlife v. nationalism I would think...

Afterlife v. nationalism I would think, symbolically speaking of course...

[conscious evolution]

71. Not even close.

Think stonemason.

[WeDidIt]

75. On the other hand, humans may not go extinct in the next 100,000 years

His speculation, although somewhat supportable with existing population studies, really cannot be considered conclusive as there is no evidence and no population studies about a species so adaptive as to be capable of creating environmental conditions capable of sustaining life in even the most hostile of environments.

[the other one]

77. Two years six months two days

Tops

[dorkulon]

78. There will be fewer of us, but some will live.

Somebody's going to have to mow the lawn in Cheney's bubble-community.

[SidDithers]

84. Is this wacky doomsday scientific theory day at DU?...

Christ on a pogo stick. :banghead:

Edit: and from the Daily Fail, no less.

Sid

[Warren DeMontague]

118. There's a whole contingent here who, apparently, CAN'T WAIT FOR EVERYONE TO DIE!

It CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!!!

And they FUCKING HATE CHILDREN!!! IN FACT, THEY HATE EVERYTHING! WE SUCK! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgh!

[cherish44]

93. I thought the world was ending in 2012

Cmon Doomsday people stop confoosing me

[chillspike]

98. That's got to be wrong

Barring global warming coming into play, wouldn't we, at the worst, just revert to a lower population level and start all over again at square one, if even that?

[Warren DeMontague]

99. I think the celebrations among the self-loathing misanthropy set here on DU may be premature.

A lot of predictions of our imminent demise have proven to be, what's the word, again? ...Wrong.



I know the kid-haters, humanity sucks-'ers, and generally undermedicated multiple personality crowd :hi: will be bummed. Sorry.

[Rex]

100. Whoa slow down there mister! That is my department!

Gonna be hard to survive when our oceans turn into dead zones with no life. I doubt we will be breading like bunnies, but will be around in 100 years.

[Warren DeMontague]

101. Bunnies make bread?

Cool!

[Rex]

108. Yes they have bread ovens in their bunny caves!

And little bunny firearms hanging on the wall next to the mounted mole head.

[Towlie]

104. As long as we're picking on him, what's a "dead zone with no life"?

That's not only redundant, it's also redundant.

[Rex]

110. It is a magical place of rainbow unicorns! Where a happy sun hangs low and

smiles all day long! Where marshmallow kids skip down candycane lanes and swim in chocolate waterfalls made of razorblades and plutonium!

[chillspike]

115. ok, you lost me at razorblades

[Warren DeMontague]

119. It's like they ran that David Cronenberg movie, and the theater was totally empty.

:shrug:

[Speck Tater]

106. It's not impossible. The human race could go extinct inTEN years.

All it takes is a bit more of this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8594430

[Tikki]

111. To be replaced by some ET hybrids....

No matter what...the next 100 years should be interesting here on Earth.



Tikki

[kgnu_fan]

112. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The World Without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world’s cities crumble, asphalt jungles give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically-treated farms would revert to wild, how billions more birds would flourish, and how cockroaches in unheated cities would perish without us. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dalai Lama, and paleontologists – who describe a pre-human world inhabited by megafauna like giant sloths that stood taller than mammoths – Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us.

From places already devoid of humans (a last fragment of primeval European forest; the Korean DMZ; Chernobyl), Weisman reveals Earth's tremendous capacity for self-healing. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that doesn't depend on our demise. It is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and in posing an irresistible concept with both gravity and a highly-readable touch, it looks deeply at our effects on the planet in a way that no other book has.
http://www.worldwithoutus.com/did_you_know.html

[stuntcat]

114. this is the only way many other species will have any chance of surviving.

We'll erase many hundreds of them before we burn out.

[underpants]

116. Because Joe Barton's eyes are so inbredly close together

I shouldn't have said that- I'M SORRY

[liberaltrucker]

124. Homo Sapiens is an evolutionary experiment gone horribly wrong

Our planet still has a few billion years to
perfect that experiment. But the Sun will
inevitably run out of hydrogen fuel and expand
into a red giant, frying the inner planets and
vaporizing the gas giants.

I'll be dead in a couple of decades, max. I have
no genetic skin in this game of life, since I chose
not to reproduce. Flame me if you must, but I really
don't give a shit about the future of humanity.

[Dreamer Tatum]

141. Yeah, you're going to get flamed for not caring about the future of an entire species

...after all, the species hangs on your every word.

Jesus, are you really that self-important?

[entanglement]

126. One thing is clear: The answers to humanity's pressing problems lie outside the profit-system

In fact, it is the cause of many of them, and the defenders of that system will also prevent just and equitable solutions to those problems. Wallowing in middle-class radical misanthropy, defeatism and pessimism isn't the answer either.

[kgnu_fan]

127. I think that is why US education system does not teach Marx

Worshiping of Capitalism is blindingly powerful, almost like a religion.

[KansasVoter]

129. Tin Foil Stuff

[Q3JR4]

130. All right.

Look, there are extremophiles that live in the deepest oceans at unheard of pressures. There are extremophiles that live in boiling water near deep ocean vents, and at subzero temperatures in the Arctic. There are extremophiles that live in extremely acidic, AND extremely basic environments. There are even extremophiles that can live--and survive--in high amounts of ionizing radiation.

If human beings were to go extinct in 100 years, and leave the planet a polluted irradiated cinder in the process, life would carry on without us.

Q3JR4.

[jmondine]

134. Hopefully, at least one human will survive in a stasis field aboard a deep space mining vessel.

[thelordofhell]

135. Some dinosaur scientist was saying the same thing millions of years ago

Alligators are still laughing about it.

[spanone]

136. what an optimist !

[SidDithers]

137. It's already started...

Sid

[Overseas]

139. And speaking of putting things off--

Check out Weds. Daily Show's montage of beautiful talk about energy independence:


http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future

[newtothegame]

140. 'Perhaps' in the story becomes 'will be' in the headline?

:shrug: Talk about sensationalism

[Dreamer Tatum]

142. If everyone is so sure that we're so doomed so soon, why does anyone give a shit about politics?

Jesus. Lunacy.

[Warren DeMontague]

145. I was wondering the exact same thing. Esp. for the people who are excited about the prospect.

If someone says some shit like "Good! Humanity can't become extinct soon enough"... why the fuck bother with voting, or the news, or much of anything for that matter??.

Shit, shouldn't they be drunk on a beach, or shooting heroin, or something? :shrug:

[Posteritatis]

153. People like to be offended about as many things as possible after awhil

Righteous indignation is addictive that way, so all the misanthropes and human extinctionist idiots can get off on articles like this and still find the energy to pour equal outraged despair into things that aren't merely attention-grabbing headlines.

[Bryn]

143. Michael Crichton believed the same thing!

He said that humans will go extinct due to overpopulation and consumption.

Michael Crichton was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of
Jurassic Park and the creator of ER.

[Warren DeMontague]

144. Michael Crichton also thinks Global Warming is phony hype by greedy environmentalists.

In short, Michael Crichton is not an expert on very much of anything, except how to turn out books that lots of people buy in the airport.

[Posteritatis]

154. Entertainment folk and other celebrities believe a lot of things. (nt)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

155. I tell you he dead.

[mmonk]

147. That's been predicted for as long as I can remember.

One day, someone will get it right.

[Fumesucker]

149. That reminds me of this song..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7pqTd99mAw

Ship of Fools..

The human race was dying out,
No-one left to scream and shout
People walking on the moon,
Smog will get you pretty soon
Ev'ryone was hangin' out,
Hangin' up and hangin' down
Hangin' in and holdin' fast,
Hope our little world will last

Yeah, Along came Mister Goodtrips
Looking for a new ship
Come on, people, better climb on board;
Come on, baby, now we're going home
Ship of fools, ship of fools,
Smog will get you pretty soon

The human race was dying out,
No-one left to scream and shout
People walking on the moon,
Smog will get you pretty soon

[scheming daemons]

150. EVERY single generation of humans believes they're living in the "end times"...

....and every single generation of humans has been wrong.


This guy is too.


You aren't getting rid of 7 billion of us that easily.

Maybe a billion or two... and life gets pretty miserable for the other 5 billion.... but extinction?


No.

[BrklynLiberal]

151. Well..that really ruined my day.............

;-)

[Posteritatis]

152. Lots of strangely alive human extinctionists in this thread... (nt)

[Zanzobar]

157. At this moment 100 years from now...

I will laugh in his faces.

[Toucano]

158. Maybe people need a positive vision of the future to change it.

Doom and gloom aren't big motivators.

We are culturally fixated on this apocalyptic future. I haven't seen a positive vision of the future since "Star Trek"

[ibegurpard]

159. Doubtful

There's a massive over-correction on the horizon though, I'm sure. That I would bank on.