Real World Event Discussions

Millions of unseen species fill the Earth

POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Thursday, August 25, 2011 18:09
VIEWED: 2191
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NIKI2

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 8:50 PM

When some talk about the extinction of ALL species, I think about this:

Quote:
Our world is a much wilder place than it looks. A new study estimates that Earth has almost 8.8 million species, but we've only discovered about a quarter of them. And some of the yet-to-be-seen ones could be in our own backyards, scientists say.

So far, only 1.9 million species have been found. Recent discoveries have been small and weird: a psychedelic frogfish, a lizard the size of a dime and even a blind hairy mini-lobster at the bottom of the ocean.

"We are really fairly ignorant of the complexity and colorfulness of this amazing planet," said the study's co-author, Boris Worm, a biology professor at Canada's Dalhousie University. "We need to expose more people to those wonders. It really makes you feel differently about this place we inhabit."

While some scientists and others may question why we need to know the number of species, others say it's important.

There are potential benefits from these undiscovered species, which need to be found before they disappear from the planet, said famed Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who was not part of this study. Some of modern medicine comes from unusual plants and animals.

"We won't know the benefits to humanity (from these species), which potentially are enormous," the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilson said. "If we're going to advance medical science, we need to know what's in the environment."

Biologists have long known that there's more to Earth than it seems, estimating the number of species to be somewhere between 3 million and 100 million. Figuring out how much is difficult. (Much more at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2090146,00.html )

Mind, I'm NOT saying we won't destroy them all, ourselves and even the Earth, just that they're there and we don't know what the future holds for the extinction of many we haven't yet discovered.

ANTHONYT

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 9:00 PM

"When some talk about the extinction of ALL species"

Hello,

I'm not sure we have the power to make all species extinct. As terrible and destructive as we are, I think we could unleash all of our war and gluttony and poison upon the Earth, and the Earth would outlive us.

These species that we kill off with alarming regularity do not represent a tombstone on the Earth's grave. Merely our own.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

NIKI2

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 9:16 PM

I agree. Most of what I've heard is that insects would survive no matter what we do and even if we "extinctify" ourselves along with everyone else. I think we'd have to totally destroy the ability for ANYTHING to live on the planet, and we'd do ourselves in long before we could do that. Hopefully.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

DREAMTROVE

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 10:05 PM

IIRC, I said "until we extinct ourselves"

I'm noting a perennial tone of personal attack here.

At any rate, we are capable of decimating the higher life form populations, including those we rely on. There has been a massive collapse of salmon species in recent years.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

MINCINGBEAST

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 10:56 PM

As a lad, I often dreamed of being the last living thing in the universe, and then killing myself. There is more work to do than I thought.

I will not be satisfied until mankind is the only species left on earth. Also, I will never be satisfied.

But anyway, how satisfying would it be, as a species, to eliminate all of our competition and former tormentors? To know that while our ancestors cowered in fear and ran from larger predators, we have now killed absolutely everything that there is to kill? These are merely rhetorical questions, because it would obviously be immensely satisfying.

When man is the last life form left, we will have pwned life. We can then go about the very important business of extinguishing our own species, genocide by genocide.

ANTHONYT

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 11:31 PM

Hello Dream,

I did not know this was directed at you. I thought it was a general topic. I apologize if I participated in an attack unwittingly.

As for the higher species, well.... the Human Race would just be one Mass Extinction Event among several in the history of the planet. In a million years, some other interesting fish will have replaced the salmon and all the other useful life we grind away. Perhaps some new sentient life form will find salmon skeletons preserved in sediment and wonder what killed them all off.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

RIONAEIRE

Thursday, August 25, 2011 1:23 AM

Niki, I love watching nature shows and learning about animals. I especially enjoy the shows where they talk about animals that I've either never heard of or know little about, they're exciting and interesting.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

KWICKO

Thursday, August 25, 2011 1:34 AM

Funny thing is, I bet they aren't even thinking of some of the creepy-crawlies that live far beneath the surface of the Earth, and have yet to be seen. We've found that no matter how far down any cave or sinkhole we go, life abounds, in new and never thought-of forms (including some that breathe in methane and "exhale" sulfuric acid!). My bet is that as we go deeper, we'll continue being astounded. And I'd wager that the same holds true for life forms living within the ice of the poles and glaciers, as well as high in the atmosphere.

8.8 million might be a LOW estimate...

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

KWICKO

Thursday, August 25, 2011 1:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
Niki, I love watching nature shows and learning about animals. I especially enjoy the shows where they talk about animals that I've either never heard of or know little about, they're exciting and interesting.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

Riona, track down "Wonders of the Solar System" with Brian Cox. It's a space show, but it's tied in to Earth in some truly remarkable ways. You'll be astonished, I promise.

ANTHONYT

Thursday, August 25, 2011 1:42 AM

"as well as high in the atmosphere."

Hello,

I seem to recall (and please correct me if I am mistaken. It has been a while.) that the original Andromeda Strain concerned a satellite/rocket designed to scoop life forms from the upper-atmosphere, where life might be as alien as if it came from another planet.

The collection device crashed in a small town, and its 'alien' microbes were released to wreak havoc on the Earth, with a research team desperately trying to find a cure before things spread too far.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi