What I think are the main threats to Human Extinction..

The topic I chose to research was a fairly broad one. I knew coming into it that of course I would not find answers, nobody can predict how the human race will end. However I didn’t expect to find the trends that I did. I do feel like I have narrowed down the large spectrum down to events which have a higher chance of occurring. My research is extremely limited, and I am aware that there are many other circumstances in which species have gone extinct in the past. One thing I haven’t acknowledged in my research is the human impact on the earth which could unveil many new and undiscovered ways in which we could be diminishing our race. For 3 of the species I researched, there was no possibility that humans could have had an impact on their extinction, whereas the remaining two (Golden Toad and Harelip Sucker) went extinct amongst the presence of humans. In this post I will discuss what the main trends of extinction were and what ideas arose from my research which could be applied to and affect humans.

Rapid Change in Climate

Most of the extinctions I looked at were a result (or a flow on effect) of a rapid change in the climate. Adapting to a new environment of a cooler or warmer temperature is what seemed to be the cause of many extinctions, such as the Mastodon, which continually retreated and advanced according to where the earth was at on a glacial-inter glacial cycle to maintain a suitable environment. When the climate changed too rapidly and the mastodons could not migrate fast enough, they were killed off. Their diets were fairly specific, so another factor to include would be whether they could not physically adapt to the climate, or whether their food sources diminished before they did. Either way both factors are incredibly applicable to humans, especially at the rate the earth is warming, faster than ever before. I believe the rapid climate change could definitely be a major killer for us.

I’m no biologist, but looking at how susceptible the human body is to disease and change in comparison to other species, what makes us think that our bodies would be able to adapt so rapidly to a higher temperature environment? If we were the Mastodon 50,000 years ago, perhaps the increasing temperature would be all we had to worry about, but humans have the added factor of what actually is causing the rapid temperature increase. 50,000 years ago the change was a natural process, today the increase in temperature is man-made. So not only do we have to worry about our bodies adapting to a higher temperature, but how will our bodies adapt to the change in chemistry of the environment? Pollution is covering the planet, cities everywhere have skies flooded with pollution. It is common now in cities to have live updates on pollution as we do with weather, to see whether is safe to be walking outside that day. For example this site which gives real time pollution measurements: http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/.  The fact that these measures have even been thought about goes to show that humans are aware of how the chemistry in the atmosphere is changing, however perhaps it does not occur to everyone that potentially our bodies may only be able to cope with so much change.

Screenshot of http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

Diminishing Resources

Throughout my research a common trend was loss of resources, which lead to extinction. We are constantly told that oil and gas are running out and eventually won’t be able to drive our cars. I agree we are using more than we can sustain, infact, we can’t sustain the amount of fossil fuels we are using – they take millions of years to make! But I don’t think it really occurs to the general public that other resources that are more essential to man than fuel one would argue, are diminishing. This was shown time and time again through my research – the Golden Toad losing its water source, the harelip sucker losing its food source due to the change in environment. Food and water is what humans rely on the most. It is a flow on effect from a rapid change in environment, whether it be a drought, a flood, a volcano eruption, it does not take a lot to ruin our food sources. If we run out of fuel as one of our resources, we cannot transport the goods from region to region, country to country. Should an event occur where it wipes out one regions food sources, the region will need to rely on other regions for food sources. There are ways to solve these issue, if the matter of diminishing resources occurs on a regional scale, the effects can be minimized. However what if this happens on a global scale? It may seem to some as unrealistic, but is it really just a matter of the chicken or the egg? Will our food sources survive the changing climate atmosphere? If our food sources adapt quicker than us humans, then of course that will prolong our lifetimes. But should our food sources diminish before we do, that will be something which could lead us to extinction.

Extra-terrestrial impact

The final idea which came to light as a result of my research is the idea that an extra-terrestrial object could cause a mass extinction. As I have mentioned in the K/T extinction post, the likelihood of a comet impacting the earth is the same as one dying in an aeroplane accident. Whether it be the direct impact of the asteroid or comet itself, or the follow on effects from it such as nuclear winters and forest fires which would in itself diminish resources, and cool down the earth to a temperature in which humans could not survive. Some may glance over this idea as it could be viewed as a matter of chance, and something out of our control. It is easier to take this perspective and focus on making changes within our planet to try to prevent the first two options – reduce human influenced change on our atmosphere, secure our resources and invest in ways to create more. However there is supposedly ways to redirect the path of asteroids, so seeing as it is proven to be a real threat to our race (refer to K/T extinction post), why are we not investing more money into removing this from even being an option?

Picture source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/nasa-asteroid-deflection-near-earth-objects-video_n_3744379.html

My Conclusions

The three ideas I have discussed have caused extinction in the past, and at the rate in which the earth is changing, I do believe that the first two options (Rapid changing in climate and diminishing resources) are inevitable. My research wasn’t incredibly extensive as I only looked at 4 different species and an extinction event, however what I looked at were all linked in some way or another by the three options I have discussed above. Given that all of the species I looked at underwent extinction events at different time periods in which the earth was at different temperatures and the atmosphere was largely different, it shows that the trends I have found are not defined by a specific environment.

My research showed how all the earth systems can interact to create new environments on the planet, and rapidly alter ones way of life. For example, within one year, El Nino – an atmospheric change –interacted with the hydrosphere, and in turn, affected the water supply in which the golden toad relied on.  What lead to the extinction of the species were not one off factors, it was the interaction of spheres in which lead to the events occurring. While most of these extinctions did not include the anthrosphere, the next question would be what effect will adding the anthrosphere to these equations mean for the extinction rate of humans? Will the anthrosphere sped up the extinction of our race, or will we be able to save ourselves?