▲ 1378 ▼ I'm tired of the inequality (lemmy.world) submitted 3 years ago by UhBell@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.ml 362 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] 4ce@lemm.ee 23 points 3 years ago (6 children) Humans have put multiple species on the verge of extinction. That is a slight understatement: The Holocene extinction is mainly caused by human activities. [...] the current rate of extinction is 10 to 100 times higher than in any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of Earth. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] ignotum@lemmy.world 6 points 3 years ago (2 children) We've had some help though, i think i read that something like 1/3 of all human caused extinctions are because we keep bringing cats with us wherever we go, and letting them roam free in ecosystems that didn't have any equivalent predator, leading to stories like this https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/03/25/species-extinct/ permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] 4ce@lemm.ee 3 points 3 years ago (1 child) i read that something like 1/3 of all human caused extinctions are because we keep bringing cats with us Do you have a source for that? Intuitively 1/3 of all species extinctions (keep in mind this in general includes plants and other kingdoms of life, not just animals) sounds far too high imo. Maybe you have read that number in a slightly different context, like bird deaths in urban areas, or perhaps in a more specific context similar to the one in your link? Don't get me wrong, like your link shows, (house) cats can easily have a devastating effect on the local wildlife, in particular birds and small mammals or reptiles (wikipedia has an article on the topic, although I didn't find anything like your numbers in it). But as far as I know the major ways in which humans have caused extinctions are historically overhunting (mostly affecting large birds and mammals), habitat loss in particular since the advent of agriculture, and more recently of course the effects of the climate crisis since the industrial revolution. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] ignotum@lemmy.world 1 point 3 years ago* I think you're spot on there, this was the only thing i could find that was close to what i remembered reading, and it's speaking about extinctions of bird, mammal and reptile species, where cats are behind roughly one third of the extinctions: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/worst-invasive-predators/ Sorry for late response permalink fedilink source parent [–] wurosh@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 years ago (2 children) Hold on, the link you posted says 10 to 100 times more than the natural background extinction rate. That's very far from "any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of the Earth. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] 4ce@lemm.ee 10 points 3 years ago* (1 child) No, it says 100 to 1,000 times higher than the background extinction rate both in the general intro and in the "Extinction rate" section, and 10 to 100 times higher than in any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of Earth in the "Extinction rate" section (both verbatim quotes from its first sentence). permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] wurosh@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 years ago* Oh, dropped a digit. Should have just taken that nap I was gunning for. My mistake! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ignotum@lemmy.world 6 points 3 years ago (2 children) We've had some help though, i think i read that something like 1/3 of all human caused extinctions are because we keep bringing cats with us wherever we go, and letting them roam free in ecosystems that didn't have any equivalent predator, leading to stories like this https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/03/25/species-extinct/ permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] 4ce@lemm.ee 3 points 3 years ago (1 child) i read that something like 1/3 of all human caused extinctions are because we keep bringing cats with us Do you have a source for that? Intuitively 1/3 of all species extinctions (keep in mind this in general includes plants and other kingdoms of life, not just animals) sounds far too high imo. Maybe you have read that number in a slightly different context, like bird deaths in urban areas, or perhaps in a more specific context similar to the one in your link? Don't get me wrong, like your link shows, (house) cats can easily have a devastating effect on the local wildlife, in particular birds and small mammals or reptiles (wikipedia has an article on the topic, although I didn't find anything like your numbers in it). But as far as I know the major ways in which humans have caused extinctions are historically overhunting (mostly affecting large birds and mammals), habitat loss in particular since the advent of agriculture, and more recently of course the effects of the climate crisis since the industrial revolution. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] ignotum@lemmy.world 1 point 3 years ago* I think you're spot on there, this was the only thing i could find that was close to what i remembered reading, and it's speaking about extinctions of bird, mammal and reptile species, where cats are behind roughly one third of the extinctions: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/worst-invasive-predators/ Sorry for late response permalink fedilink source parent
[–] 4ce@lemm.ee 3 points 3 years ago (1 child) i read that something like 1/3 of all human caused extinctions are because we keep bringing cats with us Do you have a source for that? Intuitively 1/3 of all species extinctions (keep in mind this in general includes plants and other kingdoms of life, not just animals) sounds far too high imo. Maybe you have read that number in a slightly different context, like bird deaths in urban areas, or perhaps in a more specific context similar to the one in your link? Don't get me wrong, like your link shows, (house) cats can easily have a devastating effect on the local wildlife, in particular birds and small mammals or reptiles (wikipedia has an article on the topic, although I didn't find anything like your numbers in it). But as far as I know the major ways in which humans have caused extinctions are historically overhunting (mostly affecting large birds and mammals), habitat loss in particular since the advent of agriculture, and more recently of course the effects of the climate crisis since the industrial revolution. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] ignotum@lemmy.world 1 point 3 years ago* I think you're spot on there, this was the only thing i could find that was close to what i remembered reading, and it's speaking about extinctions of bird, mammal and reptile species, where cats are behind roughly one third of the extinctions: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/worst-invasive-predators/ Sorry for late response permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ignotum@lemmy.world 1 point 3 years ago* I think you're spot on there, this was the only thing i could find that was close to what i remembered reading, and it's speaking about extinctions of bird, mammal and reptile species, where cats are behind roughly one third of the extinctions: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/worst-invasive-predators/ Sorry for late response permalink fedilink source parent
[–] wurosh@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 years ago (2 children) Hold on, the link you posted says 10 to 100 times more than the natural background extinction rate. That's very far from "any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of the Earth. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] 4ce@lemm.ee 10 points 3 years ago* (1 child) No, it says 100 to 1,000 times higher than the background extinction rate both in the general intro and in the "Extinction rate" section, and 10 to 100 times higher than in any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of Earth in the "Extinction rate" section (both verbatim quotes from its first sentence). permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] wurosh@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 years ago* Oh, dropped a digit. Should have just taken that nap I was gunning for. My mistake! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] 4ce@lemm.ee 10 points 3 years ago* (1 child) No, it says 100 to 1,000 times higher than the background extinction rate both in the general intro and in the "Extinction rate" section, and 10 to 100 times higher than in any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of Earth in the "Extinction rate" section (both verbatim quotes from its first sentence). permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] wurosh@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 years ago* Oh, dropped a digit. Should have just taken that nap I was gunning for. My mistake! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] wurosh@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 years ago* Oh, dropped a digit. Should have just taken that nap I was gunning for. My mistake! permalink fedilink source parent