Going Out On A Limb...........

seventiesdemon

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What do you see is the most immediate threat to the planet...not to us as humans....the planet?

Yeah, the planet was doing well before humans learned to walk and move house...........

?.... I don't expect answers, just your thoughts.

Yes....If Facebook is an contribution or social media..is well considered :)
 

seventiesdemon

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I think the 70's music...was the be all, and end all. Then along came rap to save the day....................................................................................ok
 
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MickeyLee

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Most immediate threat to the planet?

I've narrowed it down to two options.

1. Over population. There are just too many people for our very over taxed Mother. Any system will falter when pushed beyond its ability to renew.

2. Science denial. Which in a way covers over population. I mean, being presented clear and studied facts then straight up noping out of the truth for whatever reason.

There is a huge problem with current culture putting educated fact on the same level as ignorant opinion and giving both the same value.

Umm, no. Some people are fucking idiots. Their influence should be limited to what cereal they put in the bowl every morning. Even then, they should be supervised.
 

seventiesdemon

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Most immediate threat to the planet?

I've narrowed it down to two options.

1. Over population. There are just too many people for our very over taxed Mother. Any system will falter when pushed beyond its ability to renew.

2. Science denial. Which in a way covers over population. I mean, being presented clear and studied facts then straight up noping out of the truth for whatever reason.

There is a huge problem with current culture putting educated fact on the same level as ignorant opinion and giving both the same value.

Umm, no. Some people are fucking idiots. Their influence should be limited to what cereal they put in the bowl every morning. Even then, they should be supervised.

I have to admit to being part of the Human circus....it disappoints me greatly when I let others down....yet usually it comes with the price of my self segregation and conviction to truth I do this.

Yes.....Mickey, I agree........making the world more affluent for the billions is not going to end well.

7.5 billion in the world...1.7 own cars.........electric cars will not save us.

Wind farms will not save us either.........Millions of forest trees were cut down in Scotland to make way for a wind farm......not just that, but the wildlife that lived there.....those trees will not be replaced because the danger of wildlife and fire endangering turbines.

I've planted rainforest trees all my life....I look back now and see the ones I planted 30 40 years ago just reaching early stages of maturity.........the ones I am planting now...I never will....I have spent much of my life sorting fact from fiction.

My friend is what I walk on and what keeps me alive..............It's the best friend I will ever have.
 

51arledge

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The most "immediate" threat is Donald J. Trump. Giving one of the most reckless, narcissistic sociopaths the world has known the power of the US presidency is like playing with fire at the gas station. He could easily start a nuclear war, a conventional, or a civil war. He could destroy an economy, indeed the entire world economy. His denial of ecological peril is wrecking havoc on our economy. His maniacal fumbling with our government is destroying faith in not just our democracy, but also our faith in democracy as an idea.

Sure the world's economy and environment are endangered, but DJT is the best playing with matches out by the gas pumps.

Long range, and if we survive Trump, I agree with the comments about trying to raise the standard of living around the world and overpopulation. Maybe we need a good old-fashioned epidemic! But we also need 6 billion people to give up their dream of owning a single family McMansion, driving an SUV, going on exotic vacations, eating steak or dessert every night, etc. America has now exported consumerism to almost every corner of the globe. It will only get worse if everyone wants to be like us and during the last 20 years we've even seen that aspiration growing in China.
 

creek47

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The biggest threat to the planet? Probably major
The most "immediate" threat is Donald J. Trump. Giving one of the most reckless, narcissistic sociopaths the world has known the power of the US presidency is like playing with fire at the gas station. He could easily start a nuclear war, a conventional, or a civil war. He could destroy an economy, indeed the entire world economy. His denial of ecological peril is wrecking havoc on our economy. His maniacal fumbling with our government is destroying faith in not just our democracy, but also our faith in democracy as an idea.

Sure the world's economy and environment are endangered, but DJT is the best playing with matches out by the gas pumps.

Long range, and if we survive Trump, I agree with the comments about trying to raise the standard of living around the world and overpopulation. Maybe we need a good old-fashioned epidemic! But we also need 6 billion people to give up their dream of owning a single family McMansion, driving an SUV, going on exotic vacations, eating steak or dessert every night, etc. America has now exported consumerism to almost every corner of the globe. It will only get worse if everyone wants to be like us and during the last 20 years we've even seen that aspiration growing in China.
Wow, talk about going way over the top. I’m not even making a comment about Trump but the belief that a President of the United States that kind of power. This is simply fear mongering and it was no better than conservatives making wild claims about President Obama.
 
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creek47

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What is the biggest threat to the Planet? Probably a huge natural disaster of some sort. Remember the planet will be fine from humans. If the planet can survive being hit by an asteroid which whipped out the dinosaurs I think it can recover from us but if the planet has a major pole reversal or super volcano that would be bad.
 

willow78

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Overpopulation.

It's already been mentioned but I wanted to 'plus one' it.

Our resources are already struggling and mostly non-renewable. And the few that are renewable, regenerate very slowly. How on earth (no pun intended) can we survive when we have increasing demand on decreasing resources? If humans were animals, we'd be considered a 'feral pest'.

Unfortunately, the solutions (both long-term and short-term) are extreme. And you can bet the poor and powerless would bear the brunt of such measures.
 

halcyondays

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Immediate? Thermonuclear destruction. Despite reductions in missiles, bombers and warheads we're still armed to the teeth. It's amazing we haven't had an accidental exchange. If it escalates to even a partial exchange the devastation will make all our environmental disruption to date look like nothing.

Instead of taking centuries to wreck the environment it will happen in a few hours.:emoji_atom::bomb::emoji_clubs::emoji_biohazard:
 
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twoton

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A meteor. No amount of govt reform, social reform, population control, or investment in solar energy will save anything if we're hit by a big ass meteor.
 
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To sum it up succinctly, TightnJuicy's answer: humans.

Human arrogance, hubris, recklessness, and willful ignorance.

There's a variety of eschatological scenarios that are plausible, but my money's on one of these four:

1. Our military (or China's or Russia's) either accidentally or purposefully unleashes some supervirus or pathogen they've been playing with in their labs, resulting in a The Stand style outcome.

2. We run out of rare earth metals and oil, society shuts down and everyone turns on one another in a Mad Max-like scenario. Those who don't kill each other trying to pick clean the supermarkets in the ensuing riots, die of diarrhea from unclean water or starvation. The remainder (ex-military and criminal gangs) form rape and murder gangs, preying on the weak and vulnerable.

3. The continuing far-left/far-right ideology war continues until the US (followed by a multitude of other countries in a cascade effect) collapses like a house of cards and other countries come in and scavenge through the detritus of its remains. Massive worldwide collapse and war follow.

4. Continuing pollution escalates to the point the planet becomes unlivable and humans and animal life perish in our techno-grime and industrial poisons.

We are our own worst enemies.
 

seventiesdemon

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Since humans left their evolutionary home ground we have done nothing but burn, burn, burn. Huge forests were obliterated to keep us warm, create plains and savannas, fields, suburbs, cities, whatever for our survival of our species with little regard for anything else...

We have replaced nothing. We wonder why we have arrived at the place we have. It's because we have replaced nothing we have taken.

There were probably 10 million Kangaroo in Aus when first arrivals walked here from what is now New Guinea 70 or so thousand years ago.

In 1970 there were 3.5 million people and probably 7 million Kangaroo. In 2019 there are 26 million people and 5 million Kangaroo.

We were able to walk from Victoria to Tasmania 14 thousand years ago....Then, because of global warming the land bridges were flooded 6,000 years ago.

We became an Island Continent. Shrinking forests have caused us to arrive where we are. Plant a tree or two if you are able.......

Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis
 
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seventiesdemon

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Sorry, 12.5 million people in Australia in 1970...my bad....I was thinking of when I went to Primary School :)...9 million.....Anyway, 50 years later we are three times more, but we have less.........you know what I mean :)

Deforestation started here 60,000 years ago....accelerated with European arrival....it's all in the common sense or science if you wish.
 

halcyondays

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Since humans left their evolutionary home ground

It was our evolutionary nature to leave Africa and emigrate around the world. We are a natural species following our instinctive nature. What our species is doing is no different than an algal bloom on an ocean or a pond.

We might be the first species ever with the conscious awareness that we are overpopulating and altering the environment to our own detriment but it doesn't mean we have the ability to act against our instinctive nature and stop or even slow what we're doing. We have in a few acute cases like the nuclear test ban treaty and ozone depletion but not in chronic long term cases like greenhouse emissions and overpopulation itself.

Like nature we are nature. We are the wildlife. Our species, like all others, is playing out its nature.:cool:
 
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Tight_N_Juicy

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It was our evolutionary nature to leave Africa and emigrate around the world. We are a natural species following our instinctive nature. What our species is doing is no different than an algal bloom on an ocean or a pond.

We might be the first species ever with the conscious awareness that we are overpopulating and altering the environment to our own detriment but it doesn't mean we have the ability to act against our instinctive nature and stop or even slow what we're doing. We have in a few acute cases like the nuclear test ban treaty and ozone depletion but not in chronic long term cases like greenhouse emissions and overpopulation itself.

Like nature we are nature. We are the wildlife. Our species, like all others, is playing out its nature.:cool:

And if we don't get over ourselves we're gonna kill the entire planet doing it.
 

halcyondays

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And if we don't get over ourselves we're gonna kill the entire planet doing it.

I'm not sure I agree with that. While we are the primary cause of the ongoing extinction level event and might even extinct our own species we are not bigger than the natural forces which created us. Even in the great extinction events of the past a wide variety of species survived, carried on and evolved new species like ours.

Like the algal bloom on a lake which dies off, sinks to the bottom, eats up most of the oxygen in the water as it decomposes which kills most of the fish, a small number of fish and algae survive to start all over again and so will we. Even if we die out tons of other species will not.

That said I hope we embrace the wisdom of not destroying ourselves. I don't see much evidence of that wisdom yet. Awareness, yes. Action, no. My own impact as an average consumer makes me complicit in all the environmental degradation of our technological world.