Good article, and good comments below it. For me, it is wise for us humans to remember our place. We also must remember that time and space are too big for us to condense into images that fit nicely in our daily lives. We cannot assume. We must keep in mind that life is fragile, but tenacious. We humans must not let our ego fool us into believing that we are important in the life of species, to the course of this planet, to energy balances that involve orders of magnitude more energy and more factors than we can ever hope to influence. We must keep ourselves humble, do what makes sense, not what seems grandiose and magnanimous. Grandiose and magnanimous typically lead to more harm than good. It is very important to keep in mind that, given only the natural order, all species are doomed. Of every 1,000 species that have ever existed on this planet, only one survives. Can it be considered a tragedy to lose one more? And (as pointed out in comments), let us never quite asking, “Where are the corpses?” as Mr. Eschenbach has pointed out.

Watts Up With That?

Letter to the Editor

As the global warming bubble deflates, another scare is being inflated – species extinction. Naturally the professional alarmists present this as a brand new threat, caused by man’s industry.

However, species extinction, like climate change, is the way of the world.

It was not carbon dioxide that entombed millions of mammoths and other animals in mucky ice from Iceland to Alaska. It was not steam engines that wiped out the dinosaurs and 75% of other species who had dominated the Earth for 180 million years. There were no humans to blame for the Great Permian Extinction when over 90% of all life on Earth was destroyed – animals, plants, trees, fish, plankton even algae disappeared suddenly.

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