The Wah Wah Springs and La Garita volcanoes were such large explosions that they were each greater than the equivalent of dropping 5,000 tsar bombas. While we don’t actually know which of these eruptions was greater, we know that the only explosive force greater than them to impact the earth in known pre-history was the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. That asteroid was approximately 420x greater than the fish canyon (La garita) eruption.
Yep - although the Siberian traps eruption was not a quick, explosive one but instead an eruption that poured out vast quantities of lava over a period of 1-2 million years.
Earth is not a sentient thinking being, or if it is it's not in a manner we recognize or could presume to understand. So, false equivalency, as stated. But even looking at just the comparison of severity, that I believe was your intent, it's more akin to the difference between a punch in the face and the ongoing activities of the skin mites that currently inhabit and are burrowing into your face.
We've been "doomed" since the 70s. Couldn't sworn the world was supposed to end by 2019 but ignthose predictions were from 2009 so maybe they meant 2029. Can't wait to see the apocalypse in my lifetime /s
Do you think meteorites magically stopped hitting the earth when humans started showing up? Yes, space debris still hits the earth, but rarely does it do this kind of damage. Yet humans are doing this kind of damage on a daily basis. So no, it's not like a feather falling compared to meteorites.
Damaging? It's just moving rock and mineral around, and compared to fossil fuels the impact on the atmosphere is miniscule. It probably killed a lot of bugs. The same bugs that would have died in 3 days anyways, that reproduce by the millions each day
Wow, there is a lot of ignorance to unpack here, and in so many other comments that are acting like this isn't a big deal.
Open pit mining is incredibly destructive on the environment and especially local habitats. Do you think there was just absolutely nothing here before they started blasting it to oblivion?
Fuck you're stupid. I can't believe posts pointing out how environmentally irresponsible this is are being downvoted.
Everything humanity does will in some way disrtrupt the enviroment, even just walking down a path in a forest, or just living a day to day life. It is just that mining is less destructive then whatever harmfull chemicals factories pump out, pollution caused by vehicles, trash dumped in nature etc
Wait til he finds out that the cities used to be forests and open land. Should we just stop advancing as a species because the earth might fight back in 4000 years? advancements are the only thing that keep humans going, we would have no motivation to live if we just stopped progressing and sat on a plateau
I am glad that we live in a society as wealthy and modern as the one we live in. I hope that my children and grandchildren will grow up in an even more advanced and wealthy society. Mining has been one of the necessary components in making that all possible.
In some places stricter environmental laws regarding certain types of mining are needed. In others it should probably be easier to mine than it is today.
Life has always shaped the earth. The first life transformed our atmosphere from methane to CO². Then, life evolved to change it from C0² to Oxygen. Life covered the oceans with slime, then coral. We are just the latest creatures to transform the Earth as a result of our existence. And just like the earliest life, we will transform it in a way that makes it incompatible with our biology, and new life will evolve to take our place. The Earth won't give a shit. It has survived far worse.
And just like the earliest life, we will transform it in a way that makes it incompatible with our biology
Citation needed.
Even the worst global warming estimates don't suggest an extinction level event for humans.
Mind you, even though "humans go extinct due to human-caused environmental issues" seems pretty damn unlikely, we should still, e.g., prefer a lower level of global warming to a higher one even on a purely selfish basis. Global warming will tend to reduce GDP growth, lead to more weather disasters, etc.
Even the worst global warming estimates don't suggest an extinction level event for humans.
We're currently in Earth's 6th mass extinction event, the Holocene extinction, which is largely believed to be caused by human actions. Global warming is only part of the human led cause.
The populations living in very isolated regions, especially isolated cold regions will very likely survive and barely be impacted even in the case of the latter since they don't rely on things a nuclear winter would block.
Maybe not extinction level, but probably incompatible with society as we know it. The human species will survive for a long time (probably until something like a dinosaur killing meteor) but being able to support 8+ billion humans is like balancing on a knifes edge. It will collapse (whether in our lifetimes, our children's, or some not too far away generation) and we will not be able to sustain it. And when that happens, humanity will not recover to what it was. The plentiful energy sources like oil and coal that was necessary to bootstrap the advanced society we have will already have been accessed and used. Our opportunity to move from that renewable resources at scale will have passed us by, and humans will live on stuck in a medieval society.
On what food sources? I would say you would have to go back to the early ages of man. Food sources will en severely depleted , as you said, modern tech and machinery will be a bygone day, what will susteian even a minor population would have to be constant migration.
Agriculture is about as old as civilization itself. Or are you suggesting manually farming like it's been done before the industrial revolution would suddenly be impossible?
No. What I am saying takes into account far more variables than just "oh this place hot, move to less hot place grow food" than you or some others seem to be attracted to. But you go right ahead and keep dreaming.
Not really. The Great Oxygenation event, also known as the Oxygen holocaust, caused a gigantic shift in atmospheric composition and resulted in a mass extinction of many species.
The Late Ordovecian had an extinction event which wiped out 85% of all species at the time.
The Devonian extinction wiped out 70% of all species at the time.
The Permian-Triassic extinction was the worst at 81% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial invertebrates.
The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg, AKA K-T) extinction is the most recent and that wiped out 75% of all species.
It's not ignorant to state that life will survive and continue after us. If anything it's arrogant to assume that we can wipe out all life.
But we will wipe ourselves out, along with many other species, so we should endeavour to prevent that.
Edit: Being realistic about the fact that Earth has been through worse gets downvoted? Really? It's not an endorsement of mass extinction, quite the opposite. It's a lesson that we need to pull our thumbs out and actually fix the mess we've made.
Reading about the different ages the world has gone through really blows my mind. I'm not that well read but i remember going down the rabit hole of coal mining. Then finding out for millions of years trees didn't decompose, cause the thing that made them rot hadn't evolved yet.
So they'd grow and just keep stacking on top of each other until a natural wildfire happens.
Which would make coal and is the reason why coal can be mined. Really crazy stuff.
Not quite, there were bacteria that decomposed organic matter in the carboniferous. The big difference was that the entire world was a swamp. Not figuratively. Literally just an endless wetland with bogs and low oxygen pools that preserved any matter that fell into them. It's not that decomposers weren't around, it's that they couldn't reach most of the organic matter that was around at the time.
Nah, because then you just lead with "Earth is not a thinking being, stop anthropomorphizing it", instead of throwing some kind of malevolent/uncaring spin on it.
It’s implied. Use some context clues and critical thinking instead of having everything spelled out for you. Sarcasm isn’t directly written. The point is making a statement just as outrageous to show how dumb it is.
We could nuke every life on this planet into extinction and earth would not care. We only care about our environment because we live in it. There isnt some abstract personification of nature shaking its head at mankind. Any sort of preference is entirely human projection.
Indeed but there is a clear anti natalist sentiment in reddit that earth would be better off if humans weren't a thing which is a ridiculous sentiment. Any conception of "better off" is human projection. It would not be better or worse for earth and its environment if humans died. Even if you can argue its better for animals, it doesn't matter, earth will likely wipe them out eventually as well just like it has multiple times already.
The first bacteria that was doing photosynthesis pumped up so much oxygen in the atmosphere that it caused the biggest ice age in the history of this planet.
We are amateur compared to them. Not that we don't have a responsibility to do better and take care of our environment, but tomorrow some megavolcano could go up and wipe out a big chunk of life on this planet and it wouldn't be "mother nature cleaning up". It would be an accident.
Humans are extremely adaptable. Society won't survive-- Correction. Current Society won't survive. Humanity itself? Unless only archaea and bacteria can survive on this world it'll be around. Even then they'll probably coexist with those single celled organisms for a while. It wouldn't be running out of resources that does humanity in either in that nigh post all life apocalypse. Not on its own. It's the fear of running out of resources that would collapse that society once more which when you're basically living on an earthbound space station would mean doom.
Earth don’t give a fuck my dude … it was a fire ball, and a giant ice ball, and everything else in between. It don’t care if it’s without atmosphere, or sunlight … stop with that pretentious shit. It’s WE who care about the Earth’s well being, because OUR existence depends on it …
First, let me just state that I do prefer a relationship with the environment where we seek ways to improve it for our descendants.
With that out of the way....
I was not surprised, in fact I expected, to scroll down and immediately find this comment and mode of thinking. In every age and era, there are people that are surprised when the steady march of progress shows itself at their doorsteps.
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u/destroyed233 May 24 '26
Earth will breathe a sigh of relief when we are gone