# Are you worried about the current extinction? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2016, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190 "2016-03-07T10:48:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190/21 "2016-03-07T23:21:02Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > This is an extremely ignorant statement. No they weren’t. The vast majority of extinctions that have happened in the recent past, and the many more that will happen in coming centuries, are directly or indirectly due to human activity. Got proof for your assertion? Slee ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190/22 "2016-03-07T23:36:42Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > Got proof for your assertion? Deforestation and burning in the Rainforest is indeed killing off thousands of species of beetles and other small animals. In many cases, the species are/were unknown. However, to see both sides- a single tree in the rainforest could have a number of unique species. [http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm#.Vt4Ph\_mrShc](http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm#.Vt4Ph_mrShc) \* Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. …One single tree in Peru was found to harbor forty-three different species of ants - a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles.\* My issue with the numbers given concerns only the megafauna, and in the recent past (500 years or so) there have not been that many species extinctions. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190/23 "2016-03-08T20:56:23Z")
I don’t. I try to keep a limit on the list of things I’m willing to worry about. Extinction is one that doesn’t make the cut because I, a non-wealthy, non-influential person in the middle of a big country, cannot do anything to change it. I’ve never killed or bought any part of a tiger or a manatee. My own species might go extinct someday, but I expect to be personally dead long before it happens. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190/24 "2016-03-09T23:07:14Z")
I blame Peace. And antibiotics. The big controllers of human population are war and disease. We have made it a human preoccupation to avoid both. For all the hand-wringing of the horrendous mortality of Stalin, Hitler, and the war to stop Hitler, those 2 decade did see a drop in human population. Not nearly as effective as the Black Death, but a start. I think the Anti-Vaxx people are a fascinating development in population regulation development. A sub-set which actively tries to re-introduce epidemic diseases which the species had eliminated. Go Anti-Vaxxers!!! Go nuclear war! ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190/25 "2016-03-09T23:11:14Z")
And all the damned “Feed the Children!” campaigns. If we had let them die, they wouldn’t be burning the forests/jungles to increase the food supply to feed the offspring of those children. Extinction. Another “unintended consequence”. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190/26 "2016-03-09T23:20:45Z")
I’m the only one to hit “other” so far. That’s because I’m more heartbroken than worried. Reading DrDeth’s list sorta choked me up as a realization that we do so much harm to our lovely planet and its inhabitants. But all that being said, the planet (and humanity) will survive. Though I realize there’s no, “it’s supposed to be this way”, it’s still embarrassing that we (self-proclaimed) smart humans could be so short-sighted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-worried-about-the-current-extinction/748190.md?page=1)