The list is growing. When our book came out in November 2012 we were among a small group. A lot has happened in those two years and some months. Most of it is along the lines of accelerating effects of global warming and tipping points being passed. This author, science writer Michael Tennesen, has written The Last Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man and talks about it in an interview in Salon by Lindsay Abrams.
We had some exciting news this week when it was announced that carbon dioxide emissions had leveled off in 2014. I am afraid that that is not near enough to help us much and given the low level of understanding out there it may actually lull some more people into inaction. Read on below for more.
This is not a new warning but it needs to be repeated as often as possible:
The sixth mass extinction is nearly upon us. Species on Earth are dying out at a rate one thousand times greater than they were before humans began altering the environment. By the end of this century, scientists warn, anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of the species on Earth could be lost forever.
One can be glib about this and speak about the way evolution has always produced new species and new ecosystems when catastrophes happened in the past. Such talk is not comforting if we are taking the threat to future generations seriously. It is hard to imagine the kind of world we are leaving them.
In “The Last Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man,” Tennesen looks to the previous five extinctions for clues as to what we can expect from the sixth. He spoke with Salon about how recognizing our place in nature might help us last just a little bit longer, and how an eventual Earth without man, at least in our current incarnation, won’t necessarily be such a terrible place
There is a lot to think about here. Our species has not turned out well. We have evolved to a point where arrogance and hubris make us totally out of touch with reality. Where this has done the most damage is in our loss of understanding of our relationship with nature and the planet that is our home. I find myself seeing us as a kind of cancer of the earth system.
Reading diaries here makes it so clear. We can not govern ourselves. We have no way of establishing as true the things our science has discovered. The oligarchy simply uses science to make money and condemns any form of knowledge that would interfere with that. We claim to have evolved a form of government that is "democratic" whatever that means yet it has resulted in one huge clown show.
This bad theater goes on as we prepare for another war. Yet people can not begin to understand what we have become. The dream world we have created is almost total. Even the most perceptive among us can not handle the reality they are a part of. They have to construct a mythological world to stay sane. The irony is that sanity in this context is far from what the real notion of sanity is all about.
In a little over a week I will turn 79. I have lived a good life so far. It has had its ups and downs but I am living each day filled with the results of my education, my loves, and a lot of pleasant thoughts. Yet I can write this in the midst of all that without losing it.
My friend and colleague, Robert Rosen, wrote about "anticipatory systems". He used our species as one example. The ability to anticipate is built upon a model of the world. I have to conclude that we are failing in this respect and it is because our model is woefully inadequate. I am tired of urging action yet I feel like I must. I am unable to just sit back and accept what seems to be surely coming. There is a circularity in all this that can't be missed. If we are so far out of touch with reality that we let ourselves destroy the future, then who do we turn to to show us what to do? Any answers? I have none.