Will the Sun set on the human race?: Can Homo sapiens survive - or is it doomed to extinction, a fate known to have overtaken up to 99 per cent of all life forms?
Credit: iStockphoto
"I see a glimmer of hope," observed Boyden. "Humans can display enormous ingenuity when motivated. But the collapse of our civilisation is inevitable unless there are dramatic changes in the worldview, assumptions and priorities of the dominant cultures of human society. At this meeting, the people in attendance are well informed, but we are not representative of the broader community. Therefore, the most urgent task is education and communicating these ideas, both within Australia and worldwide."
How do you produce the scale of radical changes needed? Clive Hamilton, director of the progressive think tank, the Australia Institute and one of the few economists present at the meeting, believes that the disease of 'affluenza' – an affliction of chronic overconsumption that has infected so much of our society, isn't easily cured. "Twenty per cent of people may change because they see the costs of this overconsumption," he said. "But most will probably choose to go down consuming."
Chopra believes the changes needed will only happen following some huge demonstration of what's coming for the planet. "We need an incontrovertible collapse as a wake-up call, like a massive crack in the Icelandic ice cap," he said.
How did the Easter Islanders deal with the increasing probability of ecological collapse back in the 16th century? As their cultural trajectory had them hurtling towards a barren future in a treeless land with no prospect of escape, surely some of their elders were advocating the need for the entire society to adopt radical change? If so, then they were either ignored … or they spoke up too late.
David Salt is a science writer in Canberra, and a former editor of Newton and The Helix.
The measure of human rationality
"they were either ignored … or they spoke up too late." or they were dealing with phenomena outside the current limits of their knowledge, ethics and reason. And that same process can be observed unfolding at this very moment.
Survival of the Human species
is our extinction really such a bad thing ?
we are merely the leaseholders of the Planet, and like any itinerant tenant that insists on constantly trying their hand at home improvements to the detriment of the entire building we will be duly evicted.
Once we are gone,the Earth will heal itself and another genus will be handed a new
tenancy agreement and invited to make something with the available resources, the third such tenant since the original leaseholders, the Dinosaurs, failed to make much more of it than was given them.
Homo Sapien or killer ape, which ever description you prefer, has made it this far despite himself and his baser instincts rule his heart, which are to kill and destroy, we just can't help ourselves, even our pitiful invention, the Sky Fairies, (aka religion), has in all its guises, failed to assuage us of our self destructive instincts.
Eternity beckons for our children, and yet even at the end we will pray to the sky fairies for guidance and forgiveness. "God Help us"
Time to move on....
Well i guess scifi is near Jump in our Ftl ships and pollute some other planet ....
It's an evolution our next step is it just some impossible evolution? What about already looking at the stars for new liveable planets how about some crazy projects about traveling faster then light?
Well guess what no matter what we will find a way lol trust me a chance to destroy another planet damn right .Its our instinct and im pertty sure if we see another type of species were gonna kick them out and conquer whatever is there. Yup thats us Humans .
survival of the human species.
I love this question. We humans have done what no other creature has been able to do on this planet. we have trancended evolution even though we are still a part of it. If the question is will we still look and have the same genetic makeup as today a million years from now, the answer has to be no. but barring a total cataclysmic event on the planet, humans will be around for a long time. what we need to do is ensure our survival by moving beyond our border of this blue marble and that, will definitly will ensure our survival. even if 99 percentof the population dies off that still leaves alot of people.lr vero beach florida
Human Survival...?????????????????
..."I am not sure which weapons world war III will be fought with, but world war IV, will be fought with rocks and sticks"
...Albert Einstein.
...2 more generations at most...
..."Raupauch cautioned: "We have just two more generations, at most, to fix the problem with our climate systems."...
So folks, if we are already up to gen-"Y".
Can anyone tell me what comes after "Z" ...????????
ON A COLD AUTUMNAL .......
O nosso mundo está mudando, e se os seres humanos, num futuro próximo, nao fazer nada em relação aos desmatamento, clima, efeito estufa, estaremos todos condenados num período de curto tempo... a florestas amazonas vai virar um deserto, as terras vão ficar cada vez mais estéril para a agricultura, num futuro próximo, não mais de 25 anos, o planeta terra vai ter sérias dificuldade de relacionamento com a natureza.
O homens do nosso planeta terra, não esta pensando na preservação, sim em como lucrar no desmatamento, em uso irracional da natureza, nos dias de hoje qualquer pessoas sempre comentam, o clima não esta como era a 25 anos atras. Temos que fazer algo agora, é já... para que as concequencias não chegue a todos...
boom and bust
the economic buble is good anlog to human race. Sustainable existance is a colonization of space. But that has a problem of limiting the gene pool and hence evolution. No doubt our selfish gene will kick in and we will devolve (or evolve) to dolphins and leave the planet by our own means."So long and thanks for all the fish" - ( Douglas Adams 1978).
Respect the digital watch and now ipod bla bla...
:-) Nick