Translate

Friday, 21 June 2019

Post Human Demise

I remember a story a few years ago that said that the last Mammoths survived on Wrangel Island off the Siberian coast.

Mammoths Downsized In Order To Try And Survive
Mammoths Downsized In Order To Try And Survive ....

In order to do this they had downsized somewhat under the ecological pressure of global warming, and a restricted food supply. Until their eventual extinction about 2,000 BC, which was some 6,000 years after the rest of the mammoths of the mainland had died off. Humans probably accounted for their final demise.

Now scientists from Southampton University are predicting that the larger mammals on Earth will be wiped out from their native habitats by the next century, and the remainder will become smaller, as they try to survive. Small rodents and birds are likely to have the best success, while other larger species such as black rhinos and tawny eagles, are likely to become extinct.

The exact amount of body downsizing is predicted to be as much as 25 per cent, which when you consider that the average downsizing in the last 130,000 years has been just 14 per cent, is a very dramatic change. The scientists studied the body mass, litter sizes, habitat, diet and lifespan of 15,484 species of birds and animals.

The cause of this? Humans of course, as we cause global warming, deforestation, hunt, urbanise, and pollute the environment on a scale unprecedented in the planets history .... mass extinction events have always been natural events, not caused by one species ... up until now.

The most likely survivors will be small, fast-lived, highly fertile creatures, that can survive on insects, and which can thrive in a variety of habitats .... the rest are probably going to be extinct in the wild.

The world we are going to pass on to the future is going to be a very much poorer one .... we reap what we sow.    

2 comments:

All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.

Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.

Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.

Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.

Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.

Followers

Blog Archive

Its a Pucking World

Its a Pucking World
Dreamberry Wine Cover

About Me

My photo
A middle aged orange male ... So 'un' PC it's not true....