Is Earth due for a mass extinction? Population ecologists think so. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more mass extinctions.
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Welcome to stuff. You should know from asking for external aid work into the park. Yes, you got Josh you got Chuck here were a couple of writers: have the words that comrades, the train
job. Yes, are you familiar with any turkish authors? I've heard this one. What's the punchline there's no point
that request? Now I don't know, I didn't either until article today about a turkish author who right
the name Haroun your higher yeah, I believe the Taos Pronounced, and maybe butchering at my Turkish as a little rusty here but mister. You hire recently offered a ten trillion turkish lire, which is about eight
million dollars, not one of those outside down things, the right lines about point, eight point: eight turkish lire dollars. Last time I checked onto anyone who can prove provide definitive fossil evidence of evolution. Well, yes, that's a lot of money which is motive. I his motive. A he's, an outspoken creationism creation is raised.
He's an outspoken creationism, missed literally words narrative and die. He is so vehemently opposed to exert a Richard, Dawkins, yeah, ok, darkens has a website, and you know he's a zoo all adjust to a huge evolutionary theorist. I he actually believes that were nothing more than a vehicle for our genes right. That's all we are just big bags of flesh and our genes are really in control. Absolutely huge, huge evolutionists and mystery higher got the Gatt darkens website banned in Turkey. So really, if you go to Turkey can't get under Richard Dawkins, dot com or one does the Oda
hey or whatever so he's his really. A kind of any thinks. Evolutionary theory is false in right: it's not correct, so he is sort of ingest throwing out this huge sum of money because he claims he doesn't think anyone can actually proved right. Yeah I'd! I didn't get the impression that he is a trillion air right, don't know
many trillion as there are in a sense like a smart Alec, to make a kind of a smart Alec sure, but he what he was pretty specifically said that he wanted an intermediate form fossil, and this is
Can animal that is clearly a species that is the connecting species between Braun and another sure like gum, some fossil, that that links us humans to
frogs right because on the tree of life, we all, if you go back far enough, are related everything. Every species on earth came from.
Some little strain of r and d in the primordial soup here on earth frank billions of years ago. Right, that's what I believe. That's that's what a lot of people believe, but the fossil record, which is this this this,
record of all the fossils. All the set a memory layers, all this stuff over the last five hundred and fifty million years right is, is, admittedly, spotty right. The history of our power,
it is. Is it is it is it is this? Are you going taken? I sample you know when you go down far enough in you reach a point where no one is sample gate like it added to the fossil record right. It paints a whole picture of of the evolution of life on earth, depending on what you believe, everything may have been placed there. That's another theory right: ok, so we're still trying to figure out if evolution occurs like consistently over a long period of time, which called by letting gradualism right or it could be in short, burst as the competing theory which is punctuated.
Libya soon it still like. I said it spotty fight, it does have its uses, hey everybody! I wanna talk to you about your website that doesn't look good and this hard to program, because, where space does it better yeah they do square space.
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today for a free trial when you're ready to launch everyone use the offer code stuff to save ten percent on your first purchase of a website or domain Skurse base discotheque it. What uses Jha I'll give you use their check. Last year October, two thousand seven, some british researchers came up or where they published a study that or they use the fossil record and compared it to global climates over five hundred and twenty million year period. Right because we have a word of climate information in the fossil record as well, and what they found was that, in times of warm global temperatures like we have now, I think,
mean global temperature, which is land an ocean average temperatures put together right about fifty four degrees, fifty six degrees Fahrenheit, which is about which is in source historically weren't. It's a green have period, which is what we are now exactly traditionally, when the earth has seen a greenhouse periods, mass extinction is taken place right, so the question were forced to explore is: will we soon be extinct right which, if you look at the history of our planet, there
you know there's a case for that and if we're not extinct, certain organisms on our planet might become extinct which could lead to the domino effect and eventually we, my pigs, take the idea. That is very true. There's one case in point: mass extinction, the worst one apparently on the fossil record happen die at the
the permian period, only two hundred and fifty one million years ago? Ninety five percent of all species on earth died out when all at once I right when I read
I was blown away. Let me can you imagine if all of a sudden it was like? You know, humans, dogs, cats,
and most girls in beer mosquitoes. Maybe a cockroach write, something like
when my all the rest is gone, you know you didn't see anything when you went outside right. We humans would last long if that were the case, because we require biodiversity like when you want to tell him about bowed,
city yeah. I can speak a little bit about that. None of the earth basically just
is like that, just a big machine, and if you are compared to like it,
orange and each each little part has its own function and if one you know,
on the courage and goes off. That leads to something else to break and something else too breakin.
Earth is kind of like that is well. There are no unnecessary parts. Everything is important, even even if you are looking at a car engine, you don't really understand. You know what this does. What that does, it still essentially was put their for reason. If you'll, you no excuse the comparison,
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So no one one example use was a nitrogen in your article. If you wanted to enlighten some folks what I love enlightening for you ready the oaks. Let's do so
nitrogen basically is present in the soil. Is its inessential of food for crops are crop? Try we, we ve learned a harness while crops to to be produced under conditions. We, like writing, corn, drawing an inner. We can control how many grow and how well it grows in that kind of thing, but really, ultimately, none of this would work if it wasn't for the nitrogen present in the soil, and we can add nitrogen by it occurs. Naturally, in the soil right through, like worms, died digesting you know, I'm all sorts of different microbes, that kind of thing and the microbes themselves are involved and digest.
Things and in they what they put out a waste product in many cases is nitrogen right, which feeds the crops which feed us right as the circle of light. Yes, I'm in the lowly were murdered
Even lowly you admire your old bacteria things, it seems so with unimportant or even threatening to us. We are essential life on earth. That's the kind of goes with that machine. You were talking about the interrelated parts, each one very important right if it doesn't seem like it, so it with the loss of biodiversity, say we lose the worms we lose lie. The nitrogen in the soil, re all of a sudden are caught fail. We will be
for more than one way or another despite our technology ray is pretty amazing when you think about that. The smallest thing can have the that trickle effect and we may actually be able to survive some sort of mass extinction I mean were, were pretty smart species like technically were subtropical, you know right right and we ve mastered the colder climbs by technology like clothes or in a thankless, hot water heater that kind of thing so we're supposed to be living kind of near the equator. So will we could conceivably survive? A mass extinction will have before actually right, supposedly about seventy thousand years ago, human humanity faced a young and evolutionary bottleneck, which is where there some the species is brought to the brink of extinction. So imagine it like a bottle and then the bottleneck comes in here I lose all their other life and others genes in
basically the population squeeze down, and I am they estimate that there is about fifteen thousand people worldwide on planet on planet earth at that time really has that bona fide Burma? What number do now? I don't know the number, but I think, a lot more than fifteen that it did so on the other end, you come out so really the evolutionary bottleneck if the species survives goes from a bottleneck tune, evolutionary hourglass were becomes robust, again, right and populated by that there. If you go back to that bottleneck, it took a lot of inbreeding to get past that pointer, which, under a theory that I have explains why alot of people today Mouth Brief, while yeah we're. Let let's hear it there was it. I think I think, there's math breeders on planet earth today, because seventy thousand years
It took a lot of inbreeding get past our evolutionary bottlenecks, and previously we breathe- I probably through owner right gills, there's. No, no! No! No! I mean you know, you know like you for what twenty four Edward I watched the first day, Sir, what keeper Sutherland he's a good example of a map either he Bracer mouth breeze with his mouth open. Its little slack. George, you know remained here.
Mister Sutherland, no offense. He doesn't listen so arm check, that's pretty much the long and short of whether or not we will face a mass extinction. I think it's entirely possible. I know I've been storing water ever since I wrote this really new basement give a bomb shelter. I own of cholera bomb shelter, it's more like it
an emergency bachelor pad right to catch a nintendo, liquor and yeah exactly and the water. I have plenty of sleeping bags on uninvited
You can learn whether or not you are going to die in the next couple years. By reading, will we soon be extinct? House
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Transcript generated on 2020-01-28.