How to Stop the Sixth Extinction

Dr. Niles Eldredgem, Curator-in-Chief of the permanent exhibition "Hall of Biodiversity" at the American Museum of Natural History, describes the previous five extinction periods of our planet. He predicts Number Six.

Please read Dr. Eldredgem’s article at http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html where he says that current trends will lead to an extinction caused by one species of earth’s many creatures. Can you guess which species is most likely to bring a sixth disaster in terms of life forms on the planet?

Answer: Homo sapiens

Eldredgem blames man (Homo sapiens) for a number of “recent” extinctions. He wasn’t there to see it but the good Doctor is a paleontologist and he just knows such things.

Anyway, despite the fact (or because of the fact) that according to scientist that the earth can tolerate a lot more human beings; we have to worry about our extinction too.

Let me speak as a cosmologist for a second. Excuse the fact that I am not a cosmologist. Consider the "fuzz" on the earth as non-consequential in the cosmic view: Does it matter if that fuzz disappears. The earth would still look pretty good from space.

What is this "fuzz?"

Answer: Plant and animal life.

However, dispite what I said, even cosmologists think that earth life, especially human life, has significance.

What do you think?

Here’s what I think: The earth will take care of itself.

If it’s abused, it will heal itself.

If there are too many Homo sapiens, it will cut them down to size by disease, war, natural catastrophe, and other means.

(If the earth is not abused it will still reduce the number of Homo sapiens by disease, war, natural catastrophe, and other means. Animals and humans die of starvation all the time.)

Things will become more intense as agriculture continues its march and the earth’s population of Homo sapiens continues.

What will Homo sapiens be doing all this time?

Answer: History says that they will do too little until it is too late.

I don’t worry too much about what will happen to this planet and the creatures on it. What I worry about is that Homo sapiens might eventually leave our solar system and contaminate the world with Earth Ideologies and our deadly nature.

Fortunately, in my opinion, there is little chance of this in the near future. By the time we would get good enough to explore the universe, the earth as we know it may no longer exist.

For those who want to (at least for now) keep the earth a habitable place for Homo sapiens, I suggest the following:

1. Agriculture is a problem. Stop eating those grains, fruits, and vegetables on weekdays. Tell your children that vegetables are awful and that they don’t have to eat them. Teach them to eat dirt to avoid agriculture. Babies love to eat dirt. Don’t stop them.

2. Hunting is a problem. Stop eating wild game and mounting heads on your cabin wall. Get a paintball gun. Your color can be yellow so that everybody will know you are the one that hit the ibex in the rump. Have that video camera ready.

3. Fishing is a problem. Stop eating fish on Fridays. Catch and release on weekends.

4. Ozone is a problem as is CO2, H 2SO4, and other gases. Stop driving during months with an “R” and don’t buy those aerosol cans.

5. Teach your kids to be celibate. Tell them it has great eternal consequences. Buy them a GameBoy® if they will agree to be cloistered.

Well, it may sound trite, but it could be a start couldn’t it?

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John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com,) a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself "Taylor Jones, the hack writer."

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com

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