Colibri
September 12, 2003, 10:11pm
14
*Originally posted by Chicago Faucet *
The equilibrium that is spoken of includes the routine extinctions of species. Call it a “Market Correction”, but I jest. **
Yes, “equilibrium” includes the “routine” extinction of species (the “background extinction rate”) but we are way out of equilibrium now: the extinction rate vastly exceeds the evolutionary rate for the creation rate of new species - which should balance each other if things are actually in equilibrium.
From here :
Background extinctions are at the opposite end of the spectrum from mass extinctions. It is generally assumed that “natural” extinctions go on all the time, but at very low or “background” rates. Characteristic of background extinctions is that they occur in a random or uncorrelated anner. One high estimate for the recent background extinction rate for birds is one species extinction per 400 years. If only this natural rate of loss affected the number of bird species, no more than a couple of extinctions should have occurred in the past 800 years. Scientists estimate that the actual loss during this time period lies somewhere between 200 and 2,000! The fact that today’s extinction rate vastly exceeds any estimation of the background extinction rate impels many scientists to conclude that we are now on the cusp of the so-called Sixth Extinction.
That ain’t no market correction; it’s a market crash that makes the one in 1929 look like a tiny blip.