Why are we so concerned about the Animals now dying from "Global Warming" No one is crying over the dinosaurs.

Question

My point. We should be concerned about the environment for our own health.. not other species that may or may not be dying out anyways.. Of course I care about all animals. This is really just a conversation starter.

Answer 1

Animals aren't dying. There is a record of new species being discovered these days. No time in the history of man have new discoveries matched the level as we are finding today.

And these aren't just insects. New mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, as well as plants and flowers are being discovered.

Warming is good for life.

Answer 2

When you disturb an ecosystem the first thing that happens is the number of species declines by an order of magnitude. A diminished system does not function in a regenerative capacity anywhere near as efficient as the original did, and becomes vulnerable to total collapse.

From a purely logical standpoint if we allow uncontrolled population growth and development, eventually resources will be exhausted and the ability of the ecosystem to regenerate will be degraded to the point where it will no longer function.

This is not conjecture, it is scientific fact. We have already done this many times over to local ecosystems over the last 4000 years. We are continuing to do the exact same thing, except now it's on a global scale.

Answer 3

ok first of all...just because we are discovering new species doesnt mean they have all popped up in the last 10 years...evolutionarily speaking..impossible. it just means our scientific explorations are better and now because of new genetic techniques we are able to detect cryptic species. that is all..nothing more. and yes animal are and will continue to die. the polar bears overall size and fecundity have diminished over the last 10 years for example. and we should not only be concerned with our own health. our health depends on the biodiversity of the planet. we live in a massive undefinable web and are all interdependent. as biodiversity dwindles so do our chances of coming out of this alive. large mammals like the polar are excellent indicator species of what we have in store. there is only so much technology can do for us before the warming climate cause huge storms and droughts so that countries all over the world can no longer feed their citizens. animal are an excellent model to see how we cannot out- evolve our problems

Answer 4

Because they're early warning signs of a climate change that's going to cost you a whole lot of money.

Moving people away from coasts, replacing stuff we lose to flooding, and fixing damage to agriculture will cost hundreds of billions.

The resulting economic depression will make the 1930s look like good times. Of course, in poor countries, there will be food shortages. Some people will die of starvation and there may well be wars.

More details here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL052735320070407
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM6avr07.pdf

Vladoviking - read your references. The second one acknowledges that extinctions will occur, and only speculates that they may be less than predicted. But "The authors acknowledge, however, that they do not fully understand why so many species persisted during these ice ages, and caution that some genetic research suggests that species might in fact be more vulnerable than the fossil record indicates."

Answer 5

I agree. I don't think we should just kill them, but we need to accept the fact that many species have come and gone naturally. We may be next. Nature has no conscience and kills without regard to age, sex, numbers, etc. Nature has wiped out more species than man has with many cycles of global warming and cooling, and other natural events.

Al shows pictures of glaciers melting and polar bears losing ice. He says we must stop it. I made a trip to Alaska this summer and the naturalists said the glaciers have come and gone many times. I'm sure many animals were destroyed each time. That was long before we were here.

I believe in GW. I think we should do what we can, but I also think we need to stick to the facts.

Answer 6

Interesting point.

It illustrates the lack of understanding of ecology.

Our health, ie, humans, is directly related to and connected with all these animals and plants you dont seem to care about.

Humans evolved as part of an ecosystem. Animals/plants/insects are part of that ecosystem. We cant survive without it.
New species discovery has nothing to do with extinction rates. Our ability to search for, identify and catalog new species is a result of modern technology, wealth, free time and advances in sciences. These species aren't evolving in "real time". they have been there, we are just looking for them now.

And yes, extinction is natural. But the question is, are these species going extinct as a direct result of some human activity and can it be prevented? Is your new mahogany desk worth the extinction of a few insects? If you say yes, you are a very greedy and selfish person.

A follow up on your logic: death is natural...so why should murder be against the law? they were going to die any way.

Answer 7

Maybe the dinosaur folks are all cried out!

It's not an "either-or" situation. It's one planet. If other species are dying, it is an indicator that we are at risk.

We are concerned because we've let the situation deteriorate to a point where solutions are more difficult, more expensive, and more invasive to our lifestyles.

Warm is good. Warmer is not, Mr. Jello.

Answer 8

All animals are part of a giant web that connects all of us in different ways. The more animals die, the more holes the web has. We humans make a lot of those holes and nature cannot keep up.

Dinosaurs dies millions of years before the humans came upon the world and so they don't belong in the web any more.

If these animals die, then we could be next.

Answer 9

The Dinosaurs died because of evolution prcess, when probably humman did not exist on this earth, so, mankind could not do anything to help out. Now, todays mankind have acquired knowledge, strength, capability and vision to keep the globe of earth in a better shape, and trying to leave all the species alive for the next generations, so that they do not accuse us for not caring the globe of earth, as we inherited it from our ancesstors.

Answer 10

The dinosaurs became extinct from a giant meteorite hitting earth, some 65000000 years ago.
species becoming extinct from global warming do so because the human species hit earth and is destroying it.
we can do something about global warming, but nothing about the dinosaurs.

Answer 11

Because, as a society we've become so distanced from the natural world we no longer see the connection between animals, ecosystems and our own survival.

I give the save the dolphin / turtle brigade very short shrift. It seems to me they are about as aware of the broader environmental problems as the sceptics.