|
|
|
|
Mass Extinction causes Global Climate Change by J. S. Pettingill, published 15 July 2007 page 1 Can you imagine how many African elephants were alive over one hundred thousand years ago. The African elephant survived because it evolved alongside Man and his ancestors in close symbiosis. The more docile animals constantly and methodically, culled from the herd for 130,000 years or more. The arrival of a new super predator shaped the aggressive, wary nature of most African wildlife of today. And offers explainations, as to why the Continent of Africa has the greatest, and most diverse population of large land animals on the globe. And why African species that cross natural ecosystem borders, tend to quickly dominate their respective niches. Relative to their numbers prior to the arrival of Homo Sapiens, today even Africa's large mammals are all on the brink of extinction.
Man's influence on the ecosystem as a hunter, suggests an early link between North Africa's desertification and Man's original emergence in that region of the world. Today we are all very familar with present day problems related to large high density, Homo Sapien populations. The majority of us live, in artificially re-landscaped, communities and farmlands. Only 2% of the United States' Original Old Growth Forest remains today, the other 98%, lost during its recent European immigration period. Man continues his expansion into natural habitat everywhere, remaking it in his own image. Even outerspace is becoming littered with our garbage. Homo Sapien no longer has any large natural predators as evidenced by the relatively recent, historical explosion in human population. Today, we stride safely across animal-free asphalt plains, our only predators, tiny microbes and ... ourselves. Man is not evil, he's just one of the best carbon cyclers Mother Nature ever invented. A Reversal of Traditional Thought The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that man-made, or Anthropogenic, mass Extinction causes global climate change. This is a slight reversal of traditional thinking, the long accepted fact that natural climate change causes extinction. We know that climate and biological life are strongly and inextricably linked, and that there is already a well established general mechanism for extinction cause and effect, with climate being the driving force. Here we will examine why with the arrival of man, the positions of cause and effect, can be reversed. That man, using the mechanism of mass extinction, is causing global climate change. Plankton, one of the planet's tiniest organisms, absorbs much of today's global CO2. Recently discovered, is the ability of some species of plankton to modify their own weather by creating rain clouds. This just gives us a small hint at the power and impact a single species or genus can have on our planet's climate. The mechanism for climate influence, as demonstrated by simple plankton, is a direct effect that we can see and measure. And, it follows evolutionary theory that one of the Earth's most ancient inhabitants would have evolved this ability to such a great extent. Climate, being the overruling governor of its environment. It's easy to see other climate buffering adaptations such as fur, blubber, sweat glands, burrowing, nesting birds, or alligators burying their eggs. Harder to see, would be things like heat generating and holding capacities, emission exchange, chemical processes, interaction with microorganism colonies, shaping of the environment through grazing, impact of dust cloud creation and microbial soil life, or top predator management of prey populations. The Earth's atmospheric biosphere forms a protective envelope around our planet, buffering the extremes of a cold and deadly outerspace environment. Shielding our little world, that floats like a tiny dust particle in the vastness of space.
The Evolutionary Symbiotic Connection of all things
Odds are, that all Life is linked to an original "spark of life". One single individual, whose giant leap of self replication, survived the crucible of evolution, in a primordial sea long ago. The very first species, all alone on a vast "uninhabited planet", facing its only predator, the only threat to its survival, its greatest opponent, the climate. The same element that blessed it with Life, was now its enemy. Such a tiny beginning for today's descendants and the "zillions" before them. Why does Life have such a desire to emerge from 'goo', and pop into existence with such an overwhelming desire for expansion? That which we refer to in ourselves as,"the Will to Live". I'll leave that for the philospher in each of us, to ponder. Plants were once the master lifeform on the planet. Over millions of years, they shaped a harsh world, into a greenhouse paradise. Stabilizing their environment and creating oxygen that would lead to the development, of terrestrial and ocean mammals. For the most part, biological organisms developed enormous beneficially, reciprocating communities (ecosystems) that collected solar energy from the Sun by making exchanges of carbon atoms, .... respiration, photosynthesis, eating, etc..
The Carbon Cycle The essence of survival of the fittest, in bio-chemical terms, is that all organisms evolve to improve their carbon cycling efficiency. When carbon atom bonds of certain molecules, are chemically broken, energy is released. The now "leftover", individual atoms and unprocessed molecules, become either building blocks for cells, or by-products that are emitted back into the carbon cycle. Remember, matter and energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. As an example, plants grow and form new cells, through the process of photosynthesis. The absorbed solar energy is used to 'excite' atoms to form new complex molecules to build these cells. This process of molecule formation, traps and stores, the solar energy. When an animal then eats the plant, it chemically processes the carbon molecules with its acidic digestive juices, breaking the carbon bonds, and extracting its energy. Any undesirable molecules and atoms, are dispelled, back into the carbon cycle. The gasoline or combustion engine works on the same principles. It cycles carbon to transform solar energy into mechanical energy. The same plants we eat, fuel our cars. Crude oil is decaying plant matter with the majority of low-energy plant material already filtered out by Mother Nature. An oil or gasoline refinery removes any remaining vegetative impurities, and extracts the precious photosynthetically produced carbon molecules that are then sold in purified liquid form, as gasoline. This now refined plant matter is capable of releasing all of its stored solar energy almost instantaneously in a chain reaction referred to as combustion. The evolutionary process balances 2 carbon cycling survival strategies. The one we're all familiar with, improving the carbon cycle processing capability of the individual species. And the other, maintaining and enhancing, the volume and concentration of carbon available for exchange. This is critical, because if carbon consumption, processing rates exceed supply sustainability, the carbon cycle could, theoretically, exhaust itself and stop circulating. This is why it's an evolutionary imperative to balance processing and availability. Enhancing the Carbon Environment If an organism can enhance its surroundings to improve carbon uptake, it increases its own chances of survival. The strategies employed by the evolution to improve carbon availability are varied. And include farming, control of territory, elimination of competition and threats, lures, traps, camouflage, and symbiosis. We're all familiar with the mutually beneficial (symbiotic) relationship between plant and animal life, their exchange of atmospheric CO2 and Oxygen, and the link between eating and fertilization. Other strategies include, beavers building dams, corals building reefs, plants creating soil and shaping our atmosphere; and a special species of ant that protects and cares for aphids, as if they were cattle. And, is rewarded with sweet nectar. Some create their own micro-environments which are in turn, dependent on the biome's of larger ecosystems. Globally, each biome is in a constant struggle to optimize the relationship between carbon cycling efficiency, and climatic conditions. Moisture laden air from the South American rain forest biome, enters the global circulatory weather system. Where it travels northward, eventually cooling and condensing, causing it to precipitate out as rainfall over much of the Southwestern United States. Competing, yet cooperating, in a delicate balancing act within an ever shifting climate, all ecosystems and the organisms within them, work together on a global scale. In a united effort to optimize and continually improve carbon cycling efficiency. This includes attempting to buffer the effects of global climatic forces. Major present day ecosystems are perfectly tuned to survive climate change. Animals and plants evolved in symbiosis with the weather, ruled by it, yet capable of influencing it. There is no disconnect between biological evolution and climate. Present day life forms
Note: Recently, two new ecosystems have been discovered in the darkness of the sea's depths, blackhole smokers and methane lake ecosystems. These unique organisms, not dependent on Solar energy, still must cycle carbon to survive.
The existence of Anthropogenic Mass Extinctions (AME) in the geological record Most of us are very familiar with the stories of dramatic climate change causing mass extinction. Probably the most well know, is the asteroid impact of 65 million years ago that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Here, we are going to examine mass Extinctions that were not caused by natural events, but by man. In the last 100,00 years, it is estimated that North and South America and Australia, lost 74 - 86% of the genera "megafauna", mammals greater than 100 lbs. . In Australia, where the earliest human remains are dated to approximately 64,000 years, the great majority of the 22 identified genera of large land animals disappeared between 30,000 and 60,000 years ago. In the Americas, almost 80% of large-bodied genera became extinct. Extraordinary creatures, such as sabre toothed cats, mammoths, giant armored glyptodonts and giant ground sloths, all disappeared some time between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago, coinciding with the dates of the first clear evidence of a human presence there. Powerful new tools, like fire and sharpened stone, were used to hunt, and flush game from heavy brush or forests. In some regions, changing the landscape forever. At the advent of civilization, we began to exchange a nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle, for one of farming and permanence. Fire was employed in a new way, to clear farm lands, once again altering existing ecosystems. The invention and adoption of an agrarian life style was a necessity, driven by the mass extinction of large game animals and an ever increasing human population. Add to all this, the powerful repercussions of Man's ability, to transport other species across natural boundaries and introduce them into foreign ecosystems.
The 7th Mass Extinction in the History of the World Extinction is a natural normally occurring process. This natural cycle of extinction is referred to as the background rate. The current species extinction rate is estimated to exceed the natural or ‘background’ rate by 100 to a 1,000 times. Of the 129 recorded bird Extinctions, 103 are known to have occurred since 1800, indicating an extinction rate 50 times that of the background rate. Removing a top predator like the Tasmanian Wolf, changes the ecosystem. As prey populations explode, a chain reaction occurs in the ecosystem, leading to major environmental shifts that alter the landscape and cause climate change. Most of us are familiar with the stories of the damage, wreaked by explosions in population of other wildlife. When human populations were tiny, the land and environment were able to absorb are relatively enormous impact. Now that we've exhausted our large terrestial prey, we've turned our attention to the sea. First the whaling purge, as we harvested the sea's largest 'grazing' animals, and top predators. Starting in the 50's, new advances in fishing techniques and equipment have allowed us to virtually strip mine, our Ocean Wildlife populations. They are now being harvested at phenomenal speeds, decimating species after species. Demand for seafood has created a highly efficient Commercial fishing industry, a fine example of the pinnacle of carbon processing at its evolutionary peak. Harvesting increasing volumes, at ever increasing rates as fisherman are forced to compete in a poorly regulated, race for dwindling natural resources. Mainly in international waters, but illegal infringements on coastal areas is a growing problem. This, the 7th mass extinction in the history of our Earth, the dinosaurs, the 6th, is progressing and accelerating at alarming speed. The current ongoing extinction that coincides with the arrival of the species Homo Sapien, is possibly one of the fastest. Generally, 'Large Grazing Animal evolution' drives predator, evolutionary adaptations. For the moment the roles in Life's evolutionary race are reversed, the predator is now leading the prey. Future predictions for species diversity look bleak, with losses possiibly as high as half the species on Earth expected within the next 100 years. Source IUCN’s Species Programme page 1 |
