Vivian on 15/6/2013 at 09:43
you can't destroy all life, feebs. If an asteroid the size of manhattan just inconvenienced vertebrates a bit then nothing humans are capable of is going to wipe out life on earth. I think you would have to actually remove the atmosphere, solidify the core, wait for the water to evaporate and then put the sun out.
SubJeff on 15/6/2013 at 12:14
Nuclear winter? Uber-ober-virus?
Vivian on 15/6/2013 at 12:17
There's things living in geothermal environments that don't need the sun's energy, and besides, the nuclear winter would need to last long enough that all the detrivores died. There's evidence it basically happened after the K/T impact anyway - snap frozen plant fossils, massive spike in fungus spores etc.
What then kills the virus?
SubJeff on 15/6/2013 at 12:25
A virus that is not inside another living organism is for all intents and purposes dead anyway.
Vivian on 15/6/2013 at 12:31
Hmm... Yeah. I guess. I'm not sure what sort of virus you'd need to make to kill the totality of other lifeforms though.
demagogue on 15/6/2013 at 13:10
Quote Posted by Vivian
Hmm... Yeah. I guess. I'm not sure what sort of virus you'd need to make to kill the totality of other lifeforms though.
In fairness, the thread topic is merely the destruction of all human life... :p
Nicker on 15/6/2013 at 15:39
Agreeing with Vivian.
Even the environmentalist's lament that we will destroy the planet is hubris.
What we really mean is we will make it uninhabitable for most large animals and an unpleasant place for humans, for a short time (e.g. no internet or painless dentistry for a few centuries). Along with rats, humans are one of the few mammals which would likely survive our maximum toxic assault on the planet.
CCCToad on 16/6/2013 at 09:29
[video=youtube;2ZyCK-GF9zU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZyCK-GF9zU[/video]
Muzman on 16/6/2013 at 11:06
We're not still on the environmentalism movement for these quibbles are we? Thirty years or so on.
"No I can't take your ideas seriously sir! as your three word slogan is far too short and lacking in caveats, clarifications and disclaimers. When you print a T-Shirt that says "Save the Planet! Not in the sense that it should be stored or is in imminent danger to its person, but only in the sense that the ecology in which humans evolved and live ought to be preserved chïefly for their own safety and other ancillary values concerning the wellbeing of other species, which may or may not influence said ecological well being. And when we say preservation of the ecology, let it be known that ecology is by definition an evolving dynamic system in which humans are only a part and whose role is often variable and treating it is static is to misunderstand the concept. Human impact is an multi-various debate with a variety of factors both cultural and economic and should be assessed and scientifically and practically as possible and as such no one specifc issue or controversy can represent the entirety of the planetary ecology as stated above and any given human passion for any such cause should not be confused for such a statement"
When that is on your shirts, I may subscribe to the newsletter sir!
faetal on 16/6/2013 at 19:30
We don't need to destroy all life, just wipe the slate. The Permian mass extinction is thought to have been precipitated by a 5 degree rise in temperature setting off positive feedback mechanisms culminating in the release of methane clathrates from deep sea, which led to a further 5 degree rise. The result being that 95% of all life on earth died in the space of around 20,000 years or so. The fact that human activities have done 2 degrees in less than 200 years points to us being right on track for something like that, particularly as we're already setting off a variety of positive feedback mechanisms (decreased ice albedo, tundra permafrost thaw, ocean acidification etc...) which are very likely to take control of the situation out of our hands.
I say we sit back, take care of our own little part of the world as best we can and wait for the end of days.
