AMU Emergency Management Opinion Public Safety

How Best to Destroy the Inhabitability of the Earth?

Effective self-extermination

All it takes to ensure that we humans cannot survive and thrive on this marvelous Earth we’ve been given to steward is to … exterminate all life forms other than humans. We’re well on our way to doing that.

The [link url=”http://www.worldwildlife.org/” title=”World Wildlife Fund”] (WWF) reported that [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-wildlife-idUSKCN12R00F” title=”we’ve destroyed 60 percent of life on earth since 1970″]. The WWF also reported that [link url=”https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-fish-numbers-cut-in-half-since-1970/” title=”ocean fish populations have been cut in half since 1970″].

One of the ‘canary in the coal mine’ species that foreshadows how this will all turn out is frogs. [link url=”http://www.ecowatch.com/” title=”ECOWatch”] reported that [link url=”http://www.ecowatch.com/frogs-are-on-the-verge-of-mass-extinction-scientists-say-1882106675.html” title=”frogs on are the verge of a mass extinction”].

Effective self-preservation (maybe!?)

Folks, we can’t live with that. And I don’t mean that our senses of ethics, morality, or justice will be offended. I mean that we cannot live as a species with what we’re doing to our Earth.

Whither go the frogs, go we. Whither go the fish, go we. Whither go all of our companion species, go we. And we’re dispensing with our companions species like we don’t have a care in the world.

So.. WAKE UP!!

A billion people will be exterminated from this Earth if they cannot feed their families with fish. Other examples have lessor numbers attached to them, but that doesn’t make them any less important. With every species we exterminate from our world, we exterminate a portion of ourselves as well. Do we want that to be our legacy?

Believe me, once we have exterminated ourselves, Earth will probably breathe a sigh of relief. But again … is that [link url=”http://www.vhemt.org/” title=”what we really want”]?

Book review

For a more comprehensive review, check out [link url=”https://www.amazon.com/Sixth-Extinction-Unnatural-History/dp/1250062187/” title=”The Sixth Extinction”] by Elizabeth Kolbert.

Amazon’s summary:

Over the last half-billion years, there have been Five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Maybe food for thought for your week. Maybe food for thought for your life’s work. Both would be of value to you, your children & grandchildren, and our profession.

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