The Havoc of Mass Extinction or Computer Y2K Bugs?
I just felt to look up mass extinction. I then thought of Y2K the computer bug that was feared to create havoc in 2000.
I see the choice between the incessant new market pathology of information technology versus turning the computers off and actually going outside to check the weather. Then getting active to turn it around as the world does not live in here.
Always I feel the environment around me as we live in our cyber, political, business worlds that are deeply delusional. When you move from David Attenborough’s nature to drama you realise this is the re-programming that has numbed us to reality.
I do not watch TV much. I use computers to learn but not as entertainment (apart from comedy). The real entertainment is living your life which so many are not doing. Hence why they look for meaning in computers. It is not there it is within you. If I do not go within I go without.
When I look at the aliveness of animals, I see my own stewardship. When I see the wild animals are being crowded out by us in this mind controlled pursuit of materialism to feed the coffers of business/wealthy entities cheered on by governments who see employment and GDP as the goal. I see how out of step we are with the real situation the planet. The IT reality has the potential to sift media to contour it to the stories that leaders want the public to hear moving away from the real stories that must evoke conversations in the public interest. When it all becomes one network that inspires in myself the vision of the matrix. I keep seeing the sky/weather ruined.
When we become extinct our history disappears and only what is left is the ruins of a lost civilisation that allowed fear to dictate the terms of reference. That includes leaders fearful of multinational companies, universities trying to make money not lead an intellectual/ecological renaissance, business just locked into the pattern of business-as-usual, workers going to work to pay bills and children being shaped changed by technology disconnected from their highest potential.
I wonder where the real heroes in this world are? I guess it has to be you and me. To speak up is a duty of care in truth – to yourself and others. Yes there appear risks in exposing yourself to the world but the greater risk is the world collapsing and having said nothing. To say nothing is to allow fear to run the show. I feel the test of our times is now. Do you ignore life with your head in the sand (escape) or can you be all that you can be? A wise warrior monk said these words.
Einstein said “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.” I notice there are a few derivatives of this quote, the essence is we have to change to see differently. Some may say evolution or no-it-u-love (reverse). We can React (reinact) or decide to C first to Create anew. To create is empowered.
I regard this is as a consciousness shift as the old paradigm just repeats the same problems over and over becoming more and more paranoid as skeletons are in the closet. This is evident today as nothing has been solved in truth, the problem is worsening and the negative mentality thinks to bring in more control through – population control, IT control, full spectrum dominance, crowd control, exclusive markets, influence that silo off rather than include etc. It is a mindset that does not see the world as ONE, it does not feel its responsiblity as the ability to respond, it does not stand in the shoes of another and imagine how they feel, it does not use awareness to sense a new pathway that all can travel, love is not felt which would work on problems as opportunities and adventures, truth is not told for fears of panic, disclosures as oneness is not experienced as ego keeps people in a separated (self interested) states of being, peace is not realised as acceptance of what is relaxing into change rather than imposing another regime and enjoyment is not pleasure but inherent in the words ‘to thine own self be true’. Service naturally occurs and gives unconditonally as no-one owe’s anyone. This is how I am living now. This is ‘service above self’ as reality.
I had someone tell me yesterday to put myself first, but I know this work comes first as I am just a person and I can’t allocate time to my basics when I witness corruption, economic collapse, homelessness, violence in our world as we teeter on the edge of extinction. I am moved to keep working and just let it happen. I don’t have a partner or family behind me. So I have to trust life that there is purpose in this and just hope I am understood in the spirit of this giving.
We cannot turn this ship around whilst we tinker at problems in silos rather than a united approach to sovle this. Values must be the foundation and to live values means consciousness has shifted as they are valued above money. When you live in universal values it naturally unifies (joins) with life, this is the turn key. Until consciousness shifts (awakens) to what we see in others is in ourselves we will keep on thinking the problem is outside ourselves. The illusion appears real, I know I slip in and out at times too. Many in the public exhibit the same self serving attitudes of those in leadership/governance and tacitly support violence and corruption believing this is security and business as usual or they bury their heads as they feel they can do nothing. This tacit consent means that precious resources are diverted into endless war games by those disconnected from others and focused on the addiction of money or unable to resolve disputation. Greed is an addiction coming from deep insecurity where the confusion is amplified by what we own is who we are and if we lose it we are diminished. It is believed unquestioningly that money is power rather than love as the real power that powers universes. It is not about mechanics it is the frequency of consciousness that change your worlds.
My experience of homelessness and no income means that my consciousness shifts to how to survive, the fact I can’t live off the land, learning to live in the moment, allowing life to unfold in uncertainty, being vulnerable, unattached to status or popularity, conserving what I have, contemplating alternatives yet ensuring I live in a way that is not fearful but complete as if I have my needs met (which so far I do). Perhaps I am in the future looking back right now meditating on the present. I am also learning about real freedom as nature intended not a cliche to rally around. Freedom of thought is a given, it cannot be taken away and even without words thought creates. I envisage an empowered future where we solve the most intractible problems as we align with our true nature to recalibrate with nature and we take full responsibility for all of it.
I just had an insight – experience changes consciousness as it is a 3D experience not 1D-2D. We are in the physical world to experience it not escape it. You cannot experience the world through a laptop or tv screen, you have to go into the world and face your real fears in order to overcome. The tribal societies had initiations for boys which was designed to face fear to become men. The same applies to females becoming women, I had to face my fear travelling the world, living alone, travelling Australia with a tent, clowning on the streets placing myself in the centre of attention, public speaking to large groups, jumping out of a perfectly good plane and speaking truth to perceived power. This is experience informing me, it is shape changing me as who I was is no longer who I am. I am moving into my true self more and more as peace arises.
It is the literal growing up and taking responsibility as an equal member and inherent within this, is stewardship. This is how consciousness expands as a spiral not only a linear logical digital reality spoon feeding data to the lot, that is a massive distortion of the felt experience of life which is how wisdom is known. Mental health arises from the lack of human contact, validation and negative exclusion through thoughts, words, silence and action e.g. avoidance. The feeling state is what opens you to experiences that open to more awareness, it is in truth infinite. Yet if we hook up to technology thinking it is real, we lose our lives in passive alpha states where there is no challenge or real world, no life just attempting to fill an empty void that can never satisfy. I am fulfilled and I have nothing. I feel I have so much work, I never experience boredom as inspiration brings more and more. It is incredibly abundant. I am just not paid for what I do in a material world where money is required. Yet the mircle of nearly a year without money is still happening for me, over a year without a home. This to me is learning fearlessness, it need not be a battle to defeat someone but a inner journey to defeat fear which is the real enemy of humanity. It was never people. As a peacemaker I know this but how to convey it to those who still think there is an enemy and money is abundance. Meanwhile the nature dies in front of our eyes but we can’t see as we are in our heads filled with imaginary problems that were never real.
Only love is real. Love is what moves us to serve others. To speak truthfully to others is the highest love. It may not make you popular but it is not about likes, it is about unconditional love.
Extinction is a response to lack of love, to taking more than we need, to attempting to fill the deep void in humanity engineered by scarcity and withdrawal, to unresolved conflict fighting life, to disconnection from nature as the primordial root. Our true nature is peace. This is where we start.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/22/the-earth-is-on-the-brink-of-a-sixth-mass-extinction-scientists-say-and-its-humans-fault/?noredirect=on
Earth is on brink of a sixth mass extinction, scientists say, and it’s humans’ fault
A vast chunk of space rock crashes into the Yucatan Peninsula, darkening the sky with debris and condemning three-quarters of Earth’s species to extinction. A convergence of continents disrupts the circulation of the oceans, rendering them stagnant and toxic to everything that lives there. Vast volcanic plateaus erupt, filling the air with poisonous gas. Glaciers subsume the land and lock up the oceans in acres of ice.
Five times in the past, the Earth has been struck by these kinds of cataclysmic events, ones so severe and swift (in geological terms) they obliterated most kinds of living things before they ever had a chance to adapt.
Now, scientists say, the Earth is on the brink of a sixth such “mass extinction event.” Only this time, the culprit isn’t a massive asteroid impact or volcanic explosions or the inexorable drifting of continents. It’s us.
In a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, biologists found that the Earth is losing mammal species 20 to 100 times the rate of the past. Extinctions are happening so fast, they could rival the event that killed the dinosaurs in as little as 250 years. Given the timing, the unprecedented speed of the losses and decades of research on the effects of pollution, hunting and habitat loss, they assert that human activity is responsible.
“The smoking gun in these extinctions is very obvious, and it’s in our hands,” co-author Todd Palmer, a biologist at the University of Florida, wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post.
[Release of encyclical reveals pope’s deep dive into climate science]
Since 1900 alone, 69 mammal species are believed to have gone extinct, along with about 400 other types of vertebrates. Evidence for species lost among nonvertebrate animals and other kinds of living things is much more difficult to come by, the researchers say, but there’s little reason to believe that the rest of life on Earth is faring any better.
This rapid species loss is alarming enough, according to the study’s authors, but it could be just the beginning.
“We can confidently conclude that modern extinction rates are exceptionally high, that they are increasing, and that they suggest a mass extinction under way,” they write. “If the currently elevated extinction pace is allowed to continue, humans will soon (in as little as three human lifetimes) be deprived of many biodiversity benefits.”
The Science Advances study is not the first to propose that the die-offs caused by human activity are now on par with the fatal cataclysms of millennia past. In 1998, an American Museum of Natural History poll of 400 biology experts found that 70 percent believe the Earth is in the midst of one of its fastest mass extinctions, one that threatens the existence of humans as well as the millions of species we rely on. In his 2003 book “The Future of Life,” noted Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson calculated that Earth would lose half its higher life forms by 2100 if the current rate of human disruption continued. Scores of scientific studies have sought to bolster that claim, offering evidence of current die-offs and predicting future ones. And many more have contributed to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, which keeps a bleak accounting of the extinction risk for tens of thousands of species.
[How the fate of an entire subspecies of rhino was left to one elderly male]
It’s true that throughout history, extinctions have happened for comparatively mundane reasons. Even without asteroid impacts or human disruption, species are always dying out — the “unfit” in Darwin’s terminology — and being replaced. Scientists estimate that 99 percent of the species that ever existed no longer do. It’s a routine part of life on Earth.
What’s happening now, the researchers say, is not routine.
To prove how extraordinary the losses of the past 114 years have been, the authors of the new study used data from the IUCN Red List to calculate modern extinction rates and compared that number to the “background,” or routine, rate of extinctions. To counter claims that their research might be exaggerated or alarmist, the authors of the Science Advances study assumed a fairly high background rate: 2 extinctions per 10,000 vertebrate species each century, or 2 species per million each year (a metric known as E/MSY), based on the fossil record. Most commonly used estimates are much lower — typically between 0.1 and 1 MSY.
Under normal conditions, this assumed background rate means that Earth should have seen 9 vertebrate extinctions since 1900, the study says. (The researchers focused on vertebrates and mammals in particular because those species have been the subject of the most thorough conservation status assessments.)
But species these days are not living under normal conditions, the biologists say. Forests are vanishing. Animals are hunted for their tusks and teeth and fur. Toxins are leaching into streams and lakes and the ground beneath us. The global climate is changing, and habitats around the world are changing with it.
[Climate change could threaten one in six species with future extinction]
And, as in past mass extinctions, even the “fit” have been unable to adapt.
Based on the IUCN list of species that have been declared extinct, extinct in the wild, and possibly extinct (species that haven’t been seen in the wild for years but whose loss hasn’t been confirmed), 468 more vertebrates have died out since 1900 than should have. That translates to an extinction rate 53 times the rate of baseline levels at the “high” background extinction rate and more than 100 times the rate most other biologists use. Even using a highly conservative calculation that includes only the 199 vertebrate species definitively declared extinct, the rate of vertebrate species loss is 22 times higher than the 2 MSY baseline.
Though these extinctions are happening much faster than usual, they’re not yet comparable to the “Big Five” mass extinctions commonly recognized as the worst in Earth’s history. The losses of the past century account for only about 1 percent of the roughly 40,000 known vertebrate species — a statistic that pales in comparison to the level of destruction seen during previous mass extinction events. Even in the least of them, between 60 and 70 percent of species were killed off. During the end-Permian event about 250 million years ago, known as “the Great Dying,” that number was more than 90 percent.
But the loss of biodiversity we’re seeing now could trigger even more catastrophic species loss within a few years.
“Ecological communities are composed of many interacting parts, and there are potential ‘tipping points’ in these communities where if you lose too many species, or lose species that are particularly important, the ecosystem may rapidly degrade or change states,” Palmer wrote.
If die-offs continue at current rates, the current extinction event could reach “Big Five” magnitudes in 240 to 540 years, he said — an unprecedented speed for this kind of ecological change.
Past mass extinctions unfolded in geological time over the course of thousands of years. The calamitous “Great Dying” at the end of the Permian Period took about 6,000 centuries, as the super-continent called Pangaea coalesced, disrupting ocean currents and raising global temperatures, and lava oozed out of a vast volcanic region called the Siberian Traps, poisoning the air and seas with clouds of toxic gases. For a mass extinction to happen fast enough to be perceived in a human lifetime is unheard of.
“In terms of scale, we are now living through one of those brief, rare episodes in Earth history when the biological framework of life is dismantled,” paleobiologist Jan Zalasiewizc, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an analysis for the Guardian. He went on to note that none of the “familiar horsemen” of planetary change — “massive volcanic outbursts to choke the atmosphere and poison the seas, the mayhem caused by major asteroid impact and the wrenching effects of rapid climate change” — have factored into the current crisis (the effects of current climate change are still in their early stages, he wrote, and can’t yet be blamed for species loss). Instead, the deaths we see now are all due to pollution, predation and habitat change from one species: humans.
Still, scientists say, it’s possible to avert their gloomy predictions. They give us about a generation to make the changes needed to slow the rate of species loss.
“We have the potential of initiating a mass extinction episode which has been unparalleled for 65 million years,” co-author Gerardo Ceballos told CNN. “But I’m optimistic in the sense that humans react — in the past we have made quantum leaps when we worked together to solve our problems.”