h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's Hans Rosling now. Take your time to listen to him. It's worth it. For one thing the guy had excellent humor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w&index=10&t=0s&list=PLdFzPefKlAmDa2UQ7uGej-_TRIxgFo8Vr

"We have killed off more species than nature ever did - except maybe for a comet or asteroid or whatever it was. What other species have done anything remotely like that?" [Pierre]

It would take some and research for me to develop a good answer to that. I don't have the energy. Here is what I can patch together on the spur of the moment: if a predator lives through climate change, maybe it will cause some extinctions but not be solely the reason for them.

I don't have the record of species extinction during the existence of Homo Sapiens. I seem to recall that a lot of species have gone extinct in the last century, when we have gotten much more numerous. This was a function of our numbers, and our need to feed ourselves, and environmental degradation.

yes, the Plains Indians drove some post-ice-age animals into extinction 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. But the climate was changing during that ime Can we be sure that some of those species might not have gone extinct without the Indians? Just wondering.

I'
d rather not see the earth try to feed nine billion people, but that's not my call. At least I didn't add to the population explosion.
Not that I want to evoke guilt on the part of people who did reproduce. That's a private decision.

(In don't think the woolly mammoth would have done well with the glaciers gone. Just my opinion.)

Just as the first people are being vaccinated here the situation is getting worse

As I have written before we were quite well off throughout the summer and autumn. Less than 1 percent of the tested had caught Covid-19.

That changed 1 November, when we reached 1.61 percent.
2 December we reached 2.05 percent
13 December we were at 3.00 percent.
26 December we were down to 2.51 percent, but
27 December we were up to 3.48 percent and right now
28 December we are at 3.93 percent.

Our latest lockdown should end 3 January but I'm sure it will be prolonged and that we may reach both 4 and 5 percent before numbers drop again

Pierce, when I looked at the Hans Rosing video, I realized that I read his book two years ago. Here it is:

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling , Anna Rosling Rönnlund , et al. |

[It's a good thing that I keep track of the books I read.]

Trying to survive in a world plagued by a virus, while keeping a small carbon footprint, and not eating in ways that harm the environment takes an lot of energy that I no longer have.

I only drive my car about twenty miles a week now, thanks to the fact that I order groceries online from a nearby supermarket. But the people who deliver the food are burning gas, too, so there's as much pollution as if I were driving to the store myself.

I could reduce pollution from my furnace by lowering the thermostat, but I get cold more readily than I did when I was younger. I could be more of a vegetarian by eating less fish and poultry, but I don't have the energy I used to have. I need better nutrition because my old body doesn't work as well as it used to.

Rosling was an amazing man and it's good to see his family carrying on with his w*rk.

Some say he is overly optimistic but between all the gloom and doom I hear about from all corners of the disc it is nice to hear a positive voice also from time to time - or else we could all just be packing it in and give up

He wrote his book before Covid-19 came along.

On the other hand, Trump was president then, and soon won't be any more.

No potato I've ever known can survive -100 in the Mars night.

More people would take H.G. Wells seriously if they troubled to read his epilogue the War Of The Worlds.

Wooly mammoths still survived as late as the pyrimid builders in Egypt.

The Mediterranean elephant went extinct in Roman times, used up in glaadiatorial games.

That's fascinating.

Thank you for mentioning.

Was Hannibal using the Mediterranean elephant in his attempted invasion of Rom?

There is some question as to whether Hannibal's elephants were bred in Spain or north Africa, but yes, its logistically impossible that Asian elephants were employed.

The Mediteranean Lion survived til the 20th century.

Its generally agreed the Siberian moammoths went extinct as a consequence of a climate disaster about 2700bce.

I like the idea that at least a few animals were not driven to extinction by us.