1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb. Hey, this is Christian Seger Christian. 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,320 Speaker 1: Where do you stand on mass extinction? Well, I think 5 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:22,599 Speaker 1: it's a good thing. Yeah, yeah, just sort of a 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: regular sort of cleaning out of the lent catcher of 7 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 1: the of civilis exactly Cosmos Earth changing its oil every 8 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 1: couple of million years. Okay, all right, Today we're gonna 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: talk about mass extinctions, and in particular we're going to 10 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 1: talk about it in relation to Anteine Knewitz, who used 11 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: to be the other in chief over at Iona and 12 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: she's now at Gizmodo, both under the Gawker banner, I believe, uh. 13 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:53,279 Speaker 1: And she has this great book called Scatter Adapt and 14 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:57,160 Speaker 1: Remember how humans will survive a mass extinction. And so 15 00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: what we're gonna do today is we're gonna talk about 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: the five mass extinctions that have already happened on Earth. 17 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: We've already gone through five of them before human beings 18 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: were even walking around. The sixth one that we're pretty 19 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: much with no doubt living in right now, and then 20 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: what nuances and some of the other articles that we 21 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:21,400 Speaker 1: researched for this episode. Recommendations are for surviving the sixth 22 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: mass mass extinction that's coming up on us right because 23 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: they can be survived based on the ones we've seen 24 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:29,480 Speaker 1: so far. You have such creatures as say the earthworm, 25 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,399 Speaker 1: that's a champion of surviving mass extinction events. Exactly. Yeah, 26 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: And uh, let's keep in mind that for a mass extinction, 27 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: what qualifies as one is that seventy of all species 28 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: go extinct in less than two million years, So that 29 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: leaves you know which earthworms would fall under. There's also 30 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: a really interesting creature that Annally talks about in her 31 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: book called the Listosaurus, and we'll get to there. Um. 32 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,639 Speaker 1: But I should qualify this by saying that, uh, last 33 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 1: your fallen. For our How Stuff Works video channel, I 34 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: interviewed and Antale about this book, and you can go 35 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: and watch that episode on our HSW channel right now. 36 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:13,359 Speaker 1: It's about twenty minutes long, and I get to talk 37 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: with her personally about the book and her ideas, and 38 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: she's much more eloquent and steeped in this material than 39 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,600 Speaker 1: than we are. But this is a fun discussion I 40 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:25,239 Speaker 1: think for us to kind of piggyback on and bring 41 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,320 Speaker 1: some of our how stuff works knowledge to the table 42 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: as well. Indeed, if you want to watch that video, 43 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: I'll make sure that there is a link to it 44 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: in the landing page for this episode. It's stuff to 45 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: bow your Mind dot Com. So okay, we established what 46 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: a mass extinction is. Uh, what are the two basic 47 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: causes for mass extinction? Well, there's usually inanimate physical world events, right, volcanoes, 48 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: climate changes, outer space debris. We all think of this 49 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 1: massive massive asteroids striking the planet and killing all the dinosaurs, right, 50 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 1: that's basically the one that everybody kind of imagines. But 51 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: there's also long term to inches to biological life that 52 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 1: are affecting the ecosystems around us and killing off species. Uh, 53 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: and we are responsible for some of those. And then 54 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: in those five previous ones, which will go through shortly, 55 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: you know that there was a lot of versions of 56 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: an invasive species that were destroying habitats and and subsequently 57 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: the species that lived within them. Yeah. I mean, it's 58 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:24,640 Speaker 1: always important to keep in mind that yes, humans and 59 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: and are and various other creatures live on Earth, but 60 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: we all we live in a very slim portion of 61 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: the atmosphere here on Earth, and you can break that 62 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: down even further, especially you know, depending on the particular species, 63 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:40,360 Speaker 1: very small pockets of even that layer of atmosphere, depending 64 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: mon climate and an environment, So it becomes less of 65 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: a we are the creatures who live on this planet, 66 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: as we are the creatures who live in often very 67 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: small areas of this planet, and the in areas of 68 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: this planet that are susceptible to catastrophic change. And keep 69 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: in mind too, that these environmental changes we're talking about 70 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: take sometimes a billion years, like these are it's the 71 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: the the time that these go through. It's unfathomable. I 72 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: don't know about you, but from my human consciousness, I 73 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: have a hard time. Once we get to a million years, 74 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know, it's it's all, you know, 75 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 1: great terrain after that. But these are huge amounts of time, 76 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:28,920 Speaker 1: and that's why we're fairly confident that we can say 77 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: that we're living in one right now, because keep in mind, 78 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: they're two million years long, so, uh, it's happening at 79 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:38,840 Speaker 1: an incredibly slow pace to our human lives. Yeah, it's 80 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: a lot easier to comprehend that space collision situation where 81 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: something snacks into the Earth and it brocks everything out, 82 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:47,680 Speaker 1: or a you know, the volcano going that's erupting in 83 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: the background of that dinosaur illustration in our childhood paleontology books. 84 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: But we have to think about the long term changes 85 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:59,919 Speaker 1: that steadily alter the environment and killed off the species 86 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: that have found their their niche within that environment. That's 87 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: that's a little harder to comprehend. Yeah, absolutely, So let's 88 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:09,359 Speaker 1: look at our five examples here. The first one is 89 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: the order vichi and extinction event. Uh. And this occurred 90 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,159 Speaker 1: somewhere between four hundred and nine million years ago and 91 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: four hundred forty five million years ago. And the ideas 92 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: that you know, the world before that was the Cambrian period. 93 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: It was basically multicellular life evolving over the course of 94 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:31,279 Speaker 1: millions of years. But what happened was this catastrophe that 95 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,360 Speaker 1: some think was caused by cosmic rays from outer space. 96 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:38,920 Speaker 1: Now let's qualify this. This isn't like cosmic rays from 97 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: some science fiction novel or comic book or anything like that. 98 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: This is energetic sub atomic particles that let's say they 99 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:50,040 Speaker 1: were blasting us today, right, they would damage our DNA 100 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 1: and probably cause cancer within us. But they more importantly, 101 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: they could also affect the atmosphere, and that's what the 102 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: theory is that happened here in the order Vichyan period 103 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:05,479 Speaker 1: was that they affected the atmosphere. They basically turned coastal 104 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: habitats into deserts, and most of the life forms that 105 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: were out there, these multi cellular life forms were marine based. 106 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,160 Speaker 1: They were living in water, so their entire habitat was destroyed. 107 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 1: And we see the ice age because the world is 108 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,479 Speaker 1: covered in these you know cloud cover. Basically that makes 109 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: everything colder and it freezes. So we see a massive 110 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,160 Speaker 1: not a complete reset, but it's kind of kind of 111 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:31,840 Speaker 1: a massive reboot of life on Earth. Life is just 112 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,160 Speaker 1: finally getting to the point where it's evolving, uh, to 113 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: you know, a couple of different cells, and and it 114 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: gets blasted with ice. Yeah. Yeah, it's easy to I 115 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: guess to think about these two in terms of like 116 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: economic comparisons. You know, there's an economic downturn and uh 117 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 1: and what happened suddenly you know a number of positions 118 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 1: have to disappear at a particular place of work, which 119 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,240 Speaker 1: leads to different two roles changing, which leads sometimes to 120 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,000 Speaker 1: bigger opportunities for those that remain. Yeah, absolutely, but it 121 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: but it changes the playing field. Yeah, and there's you know, again, 122 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: let's keep this in mind too, there's not a lot 123 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: of control that any of the players involved have over this. 124 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: So we get to the second one then, which is 125 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: the Late Devonian extinction, and this is four hundred and 126 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:23,360 Speaker 1: fifteen million years to three hundred and fifty eight million 127 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:26,720 Speaker 1: years ago, And the basic cause of this one was 128 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: what we were mentioning earlier, invasive species. So the world 129 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: at the time, it's often referred to as Annalee had 130 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: talked to me about in our interview as the age 131 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: of fishes and um, there's some plant life on land, 132 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: but for the most part, again we're talking about marine life. 133 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: Can you get this combination of earthquakes and volcanoes that 134 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: start pushing habitats into different areas of the world together, 135 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: and the habitats smashed together because of these natural disasters, 136 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: and you get these inland seas where predators start taking 137 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: over habitats that they didn't previously exist in. Right, So 138 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: massive invasive species take over and the killop seventy of 139 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: the species that are existing in these previous ecosystems. From 140 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: an economic standpoint, you can think of this as see 141 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 1: the merger of two companies, Suddenly there are redundancies that 142 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: have to have to be dealt with. These both of 143 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: these uh, these individuals have the same job. Which one 144 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: is going to eat the other one? Uh? Yeah, And 145 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: and let's stick with this metaphor. I like this, So, uh, 146 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: new species do not evolve for a long time after 147 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: this Devonian extinction period. So from this corporate perspective, there's 148 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: no new jobs being created, right, there's no new positions. 149 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: There's not a lot of creativity within the organization. That 150 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:45,600 Speaker 1: leads us to the Permian period, which is two hundred 151 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: million to two hundred and fifty one million years ago, 152 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 1: and this is the big uh. They refer to it 153 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:59,000 Speaker 1: as the Great Dying, which I particularly like that name. 154 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: It sounds like some Norwegian black metal band. Yeah. But 155 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:08,280 Speaker 1: this is basically the mega volcano era, right, So the 156 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:11,000 Speaker 1: world is all getting pushed together again. There's these land 157 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,520 Speaker 1: masses that are basically forming what we call Pangaea, and 158 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: there's this massive climate change and mega volcanoes, and the 159 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 1: mega volcanoes are belching out these toxic gases that go 160 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:24,720 Speaker 1: into the atmosphere again, you know, very similar to the 161 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:29,240 Speaker 1: cosmic rays creating these this cloud cover the species on 162 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:33,040 Speaker 1: the planet die off. It takes seventy five to qualify 163 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,080 Speaker 1: as a mass extinction. Got twenty more percent here, No 164 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,440 Speaker 1: wonder is called the Great Dyeing. Yeah, like this is 165 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:40,959 Speaker 1: this is one of those examples where you can say 166 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: it came pretty close, almost wiped everything out. Yeah. So 167 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:49,000 Speaker 1: the world afterwards is basically the the ocean becomes acidified. 168 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:52,319 Speaker 1: We've got what we would think of today as pollution, 169 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:55,480 Speaker 1: but it's you know, caused by mega volcanoes and and 170 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: this this is this horrible gas that's everywhere in the 171 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 1: air and h effects that are similar to what we 172 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: would call global warming today. But the five percent survival though, 173 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,760 Speaker 1: that's kind of like the corporation has been reduced to 174 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:12,480 Speaker 1: a mere startup right right after thee And this is 175 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,480 Speaker 1: what the startup consists of. This is this is anally 176 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: really spelled this out for me, and I liked it. 177 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:22,360 Speaker 1: She said that some scientists refer to this era as 178 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:27,440 Speaker 1: slime world because the main creatures of the five percent 179 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:31,079 Speaker 1: that survived, or what we would refer to as slimes. Uh. 180 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: So you've got these slimes that are moving around this 181 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:38,480 Speaker 1: black sludge basically right, and then crocodiles. So this it's 182 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: not a friendly place. Is this barely breathable habitat full 183 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,800 Speaker 1: of slime and crocodiles. Uh. And that goes on until 184 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:50,960 Speaker 1: we've got the early Triassic period two hundred and fifty 185 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,080 Speaker 1: million to two hundred and twenty million years ago, and 186 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: this is where we start seeing the early evolution of 187 00:10:57,559 --> 00:11:02,319 Speaker 1: dinosaurs again. Egg of volcanoes come into play. They start 188 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:09,160 Speaker 1: blowing up, pushing continents around, and you know, habitats are destroyed. Okay, 189 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: So as these habitats get pushed together, food webs, you know, 190 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:16,200 Speaker 1: the relationships between these different animals and and the and 191 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:21,640 Speaker 1: the flora within their regions start unraveling essentially. And uh. 192 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: In Annally's book, she has a great example of the 193 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,320 Speaker 1: one animal that survives this. This is this is the 194 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 1: survivor that we should look to as an example for 195 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,800 Speaker 1: our own case of living through the sixth mass extinction. 196 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:40,320 Speaker 1: It's called the listrous saurus and it's basically this is 197 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 1: the description from the book an ancestral or no, maybe 198 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:48,160 Speaker 1: you added this one an ancestral shovel lizard. Added a lizard. Yeah, 199 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,320 Speaker 1: I love that description. Shovel lizards. So basically it's faces 200 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:55,320 Speaker 1: a shovel, right that survived. It kind of looked like 201 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 1: it was about the size of a pig, and it 202 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:01,439 Speaker 1: was mammal like reptile aisle, Right, it had like strands 203 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:03,040 Speaker 1: of hair and stuff like that. But I believe it 204 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,599 Speaker 1: qualified as a reptile. And but here's how it survived. 205 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 1: Because of its shovel face. It was able to burrow 206 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:13,200 Speaker 1: its way underground and survive all of these you know, 207 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:18,320 Speaker 1: pushing around of land masses and the various you know 208 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: problems with breathing in the air and also the the 209 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,480 Speaker 1: invasive species. And uh so what they do is they 210 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:28,040 Speaker 1: basically go underground, and they had this special way of 211 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:31,160 Speaker 1: breathing so that they could breathe really well underground with 212 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: low oxygen levels, even if there was dusty airborne contaminants. 213 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: So they adapted essentially to survive in this world. Uh. 214 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:43,800 Speaker 1: And the other thing that was really fascinating about the 215 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 1: listener store is not a picky eater would basically eat 216 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,720 Speaker 1: anything that came across. So, you know, as it's shoveling 217 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:53,640 Speaker 1: around under the earth, I'm picturing, Uh, what are those 218 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: creatures from D and D that that like, uh tunnel 219 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:59,319 Speaker 1: around there? Like called land sharks or something like that. 220 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm trying to now I'm thinking of all 221 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:07,080 Speaker 1: the different under dark creatures. Number hulk lister source is 222 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: a good D and D monster. That we should add 223 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:12,440 Speaker 1: that to somebody's campaigns someday. Yeah. I love the the 224 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: idea too, that it it survived because it was essentially 225 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: a generalist, because that also kind of that kind of 226 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:20,880 Speaker 1: falls into the whole economic corporate structure as well, and 227 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:23,280 Speaker 1: one that I often fall back on when I when I, 228 00:13:23,559 --> 00:13:25,520 Speaker 1: you know, start thinking about, you know, where I am 229 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:27,320 Speaker 1: in a particular place, and I'm thinking, all right, I, 230 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: you know, make sure that I don't have all my 231 00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: my tools in one basketing know, exactly a journalist because 232 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,440 Speaker 1: jack of all trades, master of not Yeah. Yeah, that's 233 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: the list of source for you. It's the long term employee. Yeah, 234 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: who do you want to be when the when the 235 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:45,839 Speaker 1: cuts come? Do you want to be the social media 236 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 1: specialist or the tumbler specialist? You know? Right? Yeah? Like that. 237 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:52,560 Speaker 1: You know, sometimes it can behoove you to specialize, but 238 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: don't specialize so much that you're the you know, you're 239 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 1: essentially this one creature that has survived to live in 240 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,719 Speaker 1: a very particular uh you know, tidle pool. And when 241 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: that title pool dries up your toast, you're the first 242 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:09,200 Speaker 1: one to get the axe. In mass extinctions and incorporations, 243 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,600 Speaker 1: life lessons from stuff to blow your mind. Uhl SOO, 244 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:15,080 Speaker 1: then we get to the one. This is the one 245 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:17,320 Speaker 1: that everybody knows about, right, that's the fifth one. This 246 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:19,400 Speaker 1: is the one we all think of. It's the Cretaceous 247 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,960 Speaker 1: period a hundred and forty five million to sixty five 248 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:31,720 Speaker 1: million years ago. This is the meteorite impact striking basically destroying. Uh. 249 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:36,840 Speaker 1: There's massive impact in what today is Baja California. Uh, 250 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:39,680 Speaker 1: and it kills off the dinosaurs. Right. This is the 251 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: like Land before Time Jurassic Park, the one that's really 252 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: hammered it into our heads. And uh, there's an interesting 253 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 1: thing here though, that's going on. In Antalye's book, she 254 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: says that between scientists that study this particular era, there's 255 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: some contention that it, yes, there was definitely some kind 256 00:14:56,960 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: of impact in that area of the world, and yes 257 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 1: that probably contribute it did to, you know, an extinction 258 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 1: of of certain species. But they also think that there 259 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:10,920 Speaker 1: were some more mega volcanoes going on more likely in India, 260 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: and that it's easy to think about again, like let's 261 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 1: get to this idea of it's really easy to think 262 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,520 Speaker 1: about this huge asteroid striking Earth and just killing everybody 263 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:24,000 Speaker 1: in one fell swoop, right, but it Yeah, those that 264 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:26,760 Speaker 1: were in the general area of impact were killed instantly. 265 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: But that's not where we're seeing the extinction. That's not 266 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:33,440 Speaker 1: where the sevent of species are dying off. It is 267 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,760 Speaker 1: the world afterwards, because you get this again, slow process 268 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,200 Speaker 1: of climate change makes it really hard for plants to grow, 269 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: subsequently makes it really hard for animals to find something 270 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:47,800 Speaker 1: to eat, and then the carnivorous animals who are eating 271 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:50,200 Speaker 1: the other animals subsequently don't have a lot to eat. 272 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: So again food food webs are unraveling. There's just not 273 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 1: a lot left. Yeah, I mean we're talking about for 274 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,080 Speaker 1: the most part, with these volcano examples and the and 275 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: the impact examples, it's it's less about getting trapped in 276 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: the lava floor. We're getting hit by the thing that 277 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:07,320 Speaker 1: collides with the earth as much as the material that's 278 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 1: dejected into the atmosphere. The sort of nuclear winter scenario 279 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,760 Speaker 1: where where there's just less some light reaching the earth. Yeah, 280 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:20,160 Speaker 1: it's interesting, Like, uh, I'm thinking about disaster movies right now, right, 281 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: and like we have this sort of obsession with them 282 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,800 Speaker 1: in in in popular culture right now. Like I think 283 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: San Andreas comes out this weekend, which is the movie 284 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: that features the Rock rescuing his family from the Big 285 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:37,960 Speaker 1: one in California. Uh and um yeah, yeah, you know, 286 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 1: when there's a big earthquake like that, of course lots 287 00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:43,320 Speaker 1: of people are going to die, but the after effects 288 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 1: are what's going to really affect the larger community, the 289 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:51,080 Speaker 1: entire ecosystem of the planet. Yeah, especially when you start 290 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:55,240 Speaker 1: stealing seeing these these the spiraling collapse as the webs 291 00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: begin to unravel. Yeah. All right, we've taken you on 292 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:04,119 Speaker 1: just a roller coaster ride through the five extinction events 293 00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 1: that have occurred so far. Uh. And now we're going 294 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:12,360 Speaker 1: to discuss the sixth great extinction event. Uh, one that 295 00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:14,800 Speaker 1: we may be living in right now that may not 296 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: you know, consists of some sort of cosmic calamity just 297 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,920 Speaker 1: wiping things out, but rather the slow process that has 298 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:27,880 Speaker 1: a lot, if not everything, to do with the human civilization. Yeah, 299 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:30,360 Speaker 1: and that's the key, Like with those other ones, it's 300 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:34,080 Speaker 1: very much about the slow you know, again, a mass 301 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: extinction requires two million years for the breakdown. Um. But 302 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 1: if we look at the sort of longitudinal uh, what 303 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 1: what is called the background extinction rate. So this is basically, uh, 304 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:50,600 Speaker 1: all the time species are dying out right, not because 305 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,080 Speaker 1: of mass extinctions. It's just part of the natural order 306 00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:57,960 Speaker 1: of things. You know, species die, new species come come forth. Uh, 307 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 1: and there's they're always going on. But the background extinction 308 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 1: rate has been higher. There's been a huge spike in 309 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 1: numbers since the Cretaceous period. So actually, if you go 310 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 1: and you look at at our how Stuff Works articles 311 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,840 Speaker 1: on mass extinction, surviving mass extinction, things that are causing 312 00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 1: the six mass extinction, there's some interesting stuff in there 313 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:22,600 Speaker 1: as well. And our colleague Jonathan Strickland from tech Stuff 314 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,440 Speaker 1: and Forward Thinking actually wrote one of those pieces, and 315 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:31,320 Speaker 1: he cited a statistic that says that the background extinction 316 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: rate for speechies is somewhere between a hundred to a 317 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:38,160 Speaker 1: thousand times greater than it should be. Uh. And he 318 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,400 Speaker 1: cited Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson as being somebody who 319 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:46,560 Speaker 1: estimated that we're looking at thirty thousand species going extinct 320 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: every year. Uh, And so you know, we're still under 321 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,399 Speaker 1: the seventy five percent threshold range. But that's faster than normal. 322 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:59,520 Speaker 1: Another another statistic here is that the background rate is happening. 323 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:05,040 Speaker 1: They're on the average. It's point one extinctions per million 324 00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 1: species per year. Okay, this is this is how people 325 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,680 Speaker 1: have studied this. Look at it. It's actually quantified as 326 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,600 Speaker 1: e over m s y extinctions per million species per 327 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:20,439 Speaker 1: year UM. But the current rate is somewhere again, like 328 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 1: I said, between a hundred and a thousand, so we're 329 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:28,400 Speaker 1: far over what you know, the average is there. So okay, 330 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:32,000 Speaker 1: so we know that our background extinction rate is significantly 331 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,880 Speaker 1: higher than it should be. Right. Uh, let's let's take 332 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:36,119 Speaker 1: a look in the same way that we looked at 333 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,879 Speaker 1: those other extinctions at the world before. You know what 334 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:41,920 Speaker 1: we had, and you know what we're looking at now. 335 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:45,399 Speaker 1: So you know, I'll remember it all takes a seventy 336 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:49,320 Speaker 1: five species in two million years. Uh, and we're looking 337 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:53,640 Speaker 1: at you know, there's like roughly you know, five major signs, 338 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,200 Speaker 1: but there's all kinds of other external reasons that could 339 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 1: cause our mass extinctions. Right, And do you want to 340 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:00,040 Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the age of man and 341 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:02,920 Speaker 1: how you know we're coming into that. Yeah, I think 342 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 1: this is a vital piece of the puzzle here because, uh, 343 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: many people refer to this age that we're living in now, 344 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:14,320 Speaker 1: this age, potentially of the sixth grade extinction event, is 345 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: the anthropasyne era, the the age of man, because humans 346 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,800 Speaker 1: are now the dominant force of change on Earth or 347 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: not just augmenting our physical selves, but but we're also 348 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:32,800 Speaker 1: augmenting the land around us from ancient aqueducts and cloud seating, um, 349 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:36,399 Speaker 1: you know on up until you know the agricultural revolution. Uh, 350 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: even if you go back, you know, even before agriculture, 351 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:41,720 Speaker 1: and you just look at us killing off the mammoths, right, 352 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:43,919 Speaker 1: we're hunting the mammoths. And then when we kill off 353 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:47,639 Speaker 1: the mammoths, it allows birch to grow unconsumed and erase 354 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,800 Speaker 1: much of the grassland. Uh. And then and these and 355 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: the trees then change the color of the landscape, making 356 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:55,879 Speaker 1: it much darker so that it absorbs more of the 357 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,399 Speaker 1: sun's heat and this heats at the air. Um. And 358 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,919 Speaker 1: so this process would have added to natural climate change, 359 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,600 Speaker 1: making it harder for the mammoths to cope and helping 360 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:09,600 Speaker 1: the birch tree spread further. Which I love this example 361 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,960 Speaker 1: because it shows that even even primitive humans just doing 362 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,760 Speaker 1: the most primitive thing possible, just spearing a bunch of mammoths. 363 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,760 Speaker 1: Right in doing that, we we just dropped the balance 364 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,439 Speaker 1: and we begin kind of paraforming the world into a 365 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:28,120 Speaker 1: new form. It's the classic invasive species conundrum basics, because 366 00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: we are the big invasive species we are, and not 367 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: only are we an invasive invasive species, but we are 368 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:39,720 Speaker 1: also moving other life forms out of their natural habitats 369 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:43,080 Speaker 1: and into other ones because we find them aesthetically pleasing. Yeah. So, 370 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,200 Speaker 1: for instance, an example that is often used as the 371 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:49,440 Speaker 1: kudzoo plant in Southern America where we live right now. 372 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,560 Speaker 1: It was brought here and it's taking over chunks of 373 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,160 Speaker 1: the entire United States since the late eight hundreds because 374 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 1: people brought it here. I thought that it was appealing, 375 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:01,439 Speaker 1: and now it's everywhere, right Like, man, I can't like 376 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:03,679 Speaker 1: walk down the street in Atlanta without seeing, you know, 377 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:08,200 Speaker 1: a house or a wall overgrown with kad zoo. Uh 378 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:11,960 Speaker 1: there's even yeah, it's everywhere. Yeah, I mean even some 379 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,199 Speaker 1: of the tolerated things in our neck of the woods. 380 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,439 Speaker 1: The English ivy. People love English ivy, but it's it's horriful. 381 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,160 Speaker 1: What you know kills trees, that it's it's invasive. Here's 382 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: one of my favorite examples. I actually did an episode 383 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 1: about this for Brain Stuff. Uh raccoons. So um, this 384 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 1: is I'll try to make this brief, but this is 385 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,680 Speaker 1: a perfect example of human beings causing an invasive species 386 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: problems a problem. So in Japan in the nineteen seventies, 387 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:43,400 Speaker 1: there's this cartoon featured this cute cartoon raccoon Okay, and 388 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: Japanese importers said, wow, like people really love this cartoon. 389 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,879 Speaker 1: Let's start importing raccoons from the United States. They're going 390 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,639 Speaker 1: to make great pets. And of course they're not domesticated animals. 391 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,439 Speaker 1: So these families would go out and buy raccoons and 392 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,879 Speaker 1: then you know, they were fairal animals basically, and they 393 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:04,640 Speaker 1: couldn't domesticate them. They didn't they couldn't live with them, 394 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:06,800 Speaker 1: so the raccoons either escaped or they were let out. 395 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: Right now, Japan is facing this huge crisis of raccoon 396 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:17,159 Speaker 1: proportions because they have raccoons all throughout the forests in Japan, 397 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,879 Speaker 1: and there um in particular a problem because they're attacking 398 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: the historical landmarks in Japan like temples and such um 399 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 1: not attacking. It's not like these raccoons are like rising up. 400 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,199 Speaker 1: It's not Planet of the Raccoons. But they're you know, 401 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,480 Speaker 1: essentially as an invasive, invasive species moving in on this 402 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:40,960 Speaker 1: territory and destroying this the habitat. They're destroying the buildings 403 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,159 Speaker 1: that are around them, They're burrowing into them, making their 404 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,360 Speaker 1: new homes there. And Japan has this huge problem where 405 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,360 Speaker 1: they're just constantly trying to catch and unfortunately kill all 406 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,080 Speaker 1: these raccoons because they just can't. The population is growing 407 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 1: so quickly just since the seventies that they can't deal 408 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,600 Speaker 1: with it. It's the raccoons pushing it out. Yeah, I 409 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:05,440 Speaker 1: mean when it comes to invasive species, and it brings 410 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,800 Speaker 1: to mind the earlier examples we were talking about where 411 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,200 Speaker 1: you had to have like masses of land converging and 412 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,560 Speaker 1: drifting apart for these kind of invasive situations to take place. 413 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:21,240 Speaker 1: Uh literally mountains were being moved to facilitate this. But 414 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,880 Speaker 1: humans have so altered life on this earth that they 415 00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:29,200 Speaker 1: just do it by just moving around, by transporting materials 416 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:33,320 Speaker 1: bye bye, you know, sometimes accidentally, such as the lionfish 417 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:35,920 Speaker 1: being an example, Well that was kind of a combination 418 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: because on one hand you have people saying, oh, the 419 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,840 Speaker 1: lionfish is beautiful, I want to keep it in an aquarium. Uh, 420 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,680 Speaker 1: And then you also have people you just have international 421 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,240 Speaker 1: shipping affecting it because even though it's a beautiful, delicate 422 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,679 Speaker 1: looking creature, it's extremely hardy and it can survive, you know, 423 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:54,040 Speaker 1: stuck away in the bulge of a ship. So on purpose, 424 00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:58,440 Speaker 1: by accident, we end up just mixing everything around, and 425 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,080 Speaker 1: uh in a number of species, a lot of species 426 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,560 Speaker 1: are going to be unable to flow with that change. 427 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: So this is a huge contributing factor to this this 428 00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:09,679 Speaker 1: current mass extinction that we're living in. It's you know, 429 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: it's happened before with invasive species moving in on other habitats, 430 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,959 Speaker 1: but in this case it's you know, often because of 431 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:20,320 Speaker 1: our intervention that we're moving these things around and and 432 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:23,400 Speaker 1: knocking out the the ecosystem that's in place. Yeah. I mean, 433 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,120 Speaker 1: just to a couple other facts, we just drive home 434 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:31,520 Speaker 1: how much we have influenced the world. Um By at 435 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 1: least eight of Earth's land surface had been directly affected 436 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:39,000 Speaker 1: by humans, and as of two thousand five, humans had 437 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,280 Speaker 1: built so many dams the nearly six times as much 438 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,760 Speaker 1: water was held in storage as flowed freely through rivers. 439 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:51,439 Speaker 1: So okay, listeners out there probably thinking, Okay, these guys 440 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:56,280 Speaker 1: are on the blame the human train. It's all our fault, right, Yeah, 441 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,760 Speaker 1: you're right, I am at least, But well it's kind 442 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,720 Speaker 1: of a compliment, right, I mean, because human humans here, 443 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: we are pilot successful at what we set out to 444 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,720 Speaker 1: do exactly. But it's, uh, the thing we set out 445 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: to do was like by its very nature, um like 446 00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,000 Speaker 1: world shaping and world destroying, and when we get to it, 447 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 1: this may be what saves us as well. But there 448 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,080 Speaker 1: are other factors that are going onto that aren't necessarily 449 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:23,280 Speaker 1: caused by humans. And other is that our oceans are 450 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,960 Speaker 1: changing again it's it's it's habitat loss, but it's not 451 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:29,359 Speaker 1: on the land, right, So there's these massive changes that 452 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,719 Speaker 1: are happening. So, for example, half the coral reefs on 453 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 1: Earth have been destroyed h and about a third of 454 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,439 Speaker 1: mangrove forest as of those like underground underwater forests that 455 00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,480 Speaker 1: you know you see like a manateese swimming thread or 456 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:47,439 Speaker 1: something like that. I don't know, Uh, those have been 457 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,159 Speaker 1: destroyed as well, right there their home to land and 458 00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,800 Speaker 1: sea animals you're thinking of, I'm thinking of like otters. 459 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,320 Speaker 1: I'm assuming I don't know off the top of my head. 460 00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: I'm not a marine biologist, but some kind of air 461 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:02,520 Speaker 1: breathing land animal that that works within this ecosystem together 462 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,840 Speaker 1: with the marine life that's there. Right. Uh. And in addition, okay, 463 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 1: this is human beings. Over fishing has led to two 464 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,840 Speaker 1: thirds of the world's marine fisheries being tapped to their limits. 465 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,960 Speaker 1: So again we're missing with things a little bit. But 466 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 1: there's there's stuff going on at a long term rate 467 00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: that we're not necessarily affecting either. Right. And another one 468 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,000 Speaker 1: that I here is of course a loss of biodiversity, 469 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:32,400 Speaker 1: which has everything to do with agriculture. Uh. We we have. Agriculture, 470 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:36,240 Speaker 1: of course, is by its very nature an artificial you know, 471 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 1: manipulation of vegetation to say, hey, we really like that 472 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: a little potato crop that's grown over there. We really 473 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,800 Speaker 1: like these red berries. They're pretty delicious. Let's have an 474 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,760 Speaker 1: entire portion of land that grows nothing but that in 475 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: an artificially maintained scenario. And uh, And then you end 476 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:57,399 Speaker 1: up depending on one particular strain of that species, and 477 00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,960 Speaker 1: that becomes the dominant um uh, you know, basically the 478 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,919 Speaker 1: dominant life form on huge pieces of land. Yeah. Anally 479 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,520 Speaker 1: uses as an example for for this. Uh. You know, 480 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 1: it seems like a long time ago, but the Irish 481 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,399 Speaker 1: potato famine of eighteen forty five within the grand scheme 482 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 1: of two million years, it's not a whole lot of 483 00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: time has past. But cheese is an example to show 484 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:25,359 Speaker 1: how habitat loss and extinction or at least uh death 485 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:29,920 Speaker 1: you know by famine uh, can be caused by two 486 00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,760 Speaker 1: things that are going on. You've got a lower population, right, 487 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 1: and then there's class divisions that are going on that 488 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:41,320 Speaker 1: are sort of deciding who gets access to the food, right, 489 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:46,840 Speaker 1: and then that subsequently leads to airborne fungus that spreads 490 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,200 Speaker 1: disease and so on. So you know, we're really looking 491 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:54,640 Speaker 1: at industrial farming nowadays as playing a huge role in this. 492 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,680 Speaker 1: It's replacing this diverse population of plants that we have 493 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: with a single crop that were raising for you know, 494 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,960 Speaker 1: the purposes of selling them the grocery store basically, which 495 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: means you're highly susceptible to one microbe one of these 496 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,680 Speaker 1: coming along and just wiping that out. What if something 497 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,360 Speaker 1: takes up corn? Yeah, because we increasingly depend on one 498 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: strain of corn. I mean, that's why there are efforts 499 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:21,480 Speaker 1: to maintain these additional strains of corn in the protected 500 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,080 Speaker 1: places so that we have that genetic diversity to fall 501 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,840 Speaker 1: back on. Yeah. Yeah, that's scary just on its own, right, 502 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,720 Speaker 1: But um, let's add a fourth one to the mix. 503 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:36,360 Speaker 1: And this is again, this is not a human a 504 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 1: human error here. This is the one that we know 505 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,040 Speaker 1: from the Cretaceous period, the asteroid impact. Right, this is 506 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:46,680 Speaker 1: your arm again, this is your deep impact movie scenario. So, um, 507 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: we're actually do for one of these. NASA essentially says 508 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: that asteroids that are you know, that are big enough 509 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:57,640 Speaker 1: to cause the Cretaceous period extinction event. They're supposed to 510 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: strike the Earth every million years. In our dou dates 511 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:04,360 Speaker 1: come up, we haven't had one, and um, so we're 512 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: just kind of crossing our fingures waiting to get hit 513 00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: by a big rock from outer space. The one of 514 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:14,840 Speaker 1: the thing about this particular threat, this particular extinction events scenario, 515 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:20,680 Speaker 1: is that we increasingly have the ability to to to 516 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:24,800 Speaker 1: track these these near Earth objects. We increasingly have the 517 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: ability to launch the kind of countermeasures that could prevent 518 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:33,280 Speaker 1: them once spotted. Uh, neither neither of those efforts are 519 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,640 Speaker 1: are funded to the extent they should be, which is 520 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: crazy when you realize that that of all these things 521 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,680 Speaker 1: like these this is in the movies, there's always a 522 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,160 Speaker 1: hero of saving the world, doing something heroic to save 523 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: the world. Historically, like no living actual person has ever 524 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: saved the world. But this is a scenario where we could, 525 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 1: like like a particular effort, a particular organization could save 526 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: the world or a whole lot of people in it 527 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: from annihilation by a near Earth object. Yeah, but we're 528 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 1: not there yet. Yeah, no, we're not. I mean, that's 529 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,320 Speaker 1: all episode for another time. But obviously, you know, the 530 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: NASA and other national space organizations aren't getting the funding 531 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,760 Speaker 1: they need to sort of defend US, I guess at large. 532 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: But this is you know, something that analegue gets into later, 533 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,920 Speaker 1: is that outer space is really going to be uh 534 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: the long term goal here for us development of travel 535 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,120 Speaker 1: throughout space, paying attention to what's going on around the 536 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,240 Speaker 1: planet Earth. That's going to be a huge factor in 537 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,520 Speaker 1: making sure that the human species survives. Yeah, and also 538 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:39,840 Speaker 1: in terms of just like moving up the Cardassian scale, 539 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 1: like we have to master the planet and in a 540 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,719 Speaker 1: in a real and meaningful sense and not just oops, 541 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:49,960 Speaker 1: we screwed everything else up on the planet. So there's 542 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:52,840 Speaker 1: a fifth one here that I think is a pretty 543 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,040 Speaker 1: big one, and you know, we'd be remiss if we 544 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,600 Speaker 1: ignored it, which is the rising temperature caused by dun 545 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 1: dun dune global warming. Um. And we're not going to 546 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:03,960 Speaker 1: get into the debates of its origin. You know, obviously 547 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: there's a lot of conflicting reports back and forth of 548 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,640 Speaker 1: what scientists say or politicians say about this one way 549 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:14,600 Speaker 1: or the other. But let's just stick with this one fact, okay. 550 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,880 Speaker 1: So it all it takes is a shift of one 551 00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:21,760 Speaker 1: degree celsius, which is for us in America one point 552 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,520 Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit one point eight sorry, one point eight degrees fahrenheit. 553 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,360 Speaker 1: That alone would lead to thirty percent of Earth's species 554 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:33,400 Speaker 1: being wiped out forever. So uh, you know, depending on 555 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,239 Speaker 1: where you stand on global warming, just know that, you know, 556 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:39,440 Speaker 1: all it takes is that one little nudge on the 557 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:44,760 Speaker 1: temperature scale and boom, it's just gone. Because again, like 558 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:49,440 Speaker 1: so many creatures, essentially live in a metaphorical tidal pool, 559 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 1: and it doesn't take much to make that pool just vanish. Entirely. 560 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,080 Speaker 1: So you've got a couple of examples that are like 561 00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: the asteroid one outer space kind of cosmic events. Let's 562 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,080 Speaker 1: let's let's think a little bigger. Let's think Jack Kirby here. 563 00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,920 Speaker 1: So what have we got? Well for starters, if a 564 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,080 Speaker 1: sufficiently large nearby star or to burn out, the resulting 565 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,640 Speaker 1: hyper nova could theoretically blast the Earth with enough gamma 566 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,479 Speaker 1: radiation to destroy our ozone layer, and that would expose 567 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,400 Speaker 1: us to deadly doses of solar radiation. So that's uh, 568 00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:24,200 Speaker 1: that's a potential factor there. So okay, so another reason 569 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,720 Speaker 1: for us to be paying more attention to what's going 570 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,160 Speaker 1: on matter space. Yeah, yeah, I mean this this would 571 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:34,240 Speaker 1: be an example of one that would be less uh less, 572 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:37,440 Speaker 1: less easily diverted. It's not a matter of incoming object. 573 00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:39,840 Speaker 1: Can we just sort of nudge it off course? But 574 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: obviously the more we know about it, the better position 575 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,200 Speaker 1: we are to understand what's happening. Then maybe we would 576 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 1: be able to devise some means to shield the planet. 577 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:54,120 Speaker 1: Another similar event, Uh, there's an orange dwarf dubbed Glease 578 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: seven ten, and it poses another threat. Astronomers predicted that 579 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 1: this rogue star may barrel into our corner of the 580 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,160 Speaker 1: galaxy roughly one point five million years from now, So 581 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,920 Speaker 1: we're looking out a little um shredding the Orc cloud 582 00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,560 Speaker 1: on the outskirts of our Solar system and pelting us 583 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:13,800 Speaker 1: with comets formed from the impact. So it's not the 584 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:16,719 Speaker 1: star itself, but it's the resulting commets that are going 585 00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:22,160 Speaker 1: to basically hit us like mortar fire basically, and indeed 586 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,680 Speaker 1: the stress that we put on leaving the planet. And 587 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:28,319 Speaker 1: that's in roughly seven point six billion years, the Sun 588 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,960 Speaker 1: will burn through the last of its fuel and swell 589 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,120 Speaker 1: into a red giant, and in this form, the Sun's 590 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: diameter will encompass Earth's current orbit and vaporize the planet awesome. Now, 591 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 1: before that occurs, however, scientists predicted the Sun's a slow 592 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:47,440 Speaker 1: expansion will raise temperatures and boil the oceans dry, uh 593 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,640 Speaker 1: essentially turning Earth into a desert world in a mere 594 00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:54,719 Speaker 1: five hundred million years, And some estimations are predicted that 595 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,680 Speaker 1: the Earth, unbound by the Sun's decreased mass, will actually 596 00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,719 Speaker 1: then drift out into an out or orbit safe from 597 00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:04,719 Speaker 1: the expansion of the Sun. But again, yeah, what the 598 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,360 Speaker 1: catastrophic effects there are are pretty staggering, like the ocean's 599 00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:12,160 Speaker 1: freezing solid. Uh and you know life on Earth consisting 600 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,520 Speaker 1: of only you know, some creatures huddled around up a 601 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,600 Speaker 1: hyperthermal vent. So we'll have have to have gotten off 602 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 1: the planet well before then, yeah, or or figure out 603 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:24,520 Speaker 1: a way to move it, which is another sort of 604 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,239 Speaker 1: far future possibility, like what can you do in terms 605 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:30,440 Speaker 1: of moving us, moving the planet and rolling with these 606 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:35,120 Speaker 1: long term cosmic catastrophes that are just a part of 607 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:38,319 Speaker 1: the life cycle of a solar system. Okay, so let's 608 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,239 Speaker 1: get into next. What we'll talk about is how we're 609 00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:43,759 Speaker 1: going to survive this thing, what strategies are in place, 610 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,480 Speaker 1: and in particular, Knewances book really you know, focuses on 611 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: this and the title of her book is is um 612 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:53,360 Speaker 1: useful here? Scatter? Adapt? And remember, those are the strategies 613 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,040 Speaker 1: at hand. We've we've talked about the five extinction events 614 00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,600 Speaker 1: that have occurred, We've talked about the sixth that we're 615 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,799 Speaker 1: involved in right now, the steady um transformation of the 616 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,719 Speaker 1: planet into a less hospitable form, as well as some 617 00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:12,840 Speaker 1: of the you know, truly cosmic cataclysms that potentially await 618 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,799 Speaker 1: us and in some cases definitely await us in the 619 00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:19,960 Speaker 1: far future. So all right, looking at all of this 620 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,080 Speaker 1: death and destruction that's happened on Earth, that is happening 621 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:27,160 Speaker 1: on Earth and that will happen on Earth really makes 622 00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,319 Speaker 1: me kind of back up. And you know, you hear 623 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:33,200 Speaker 1: the term cosmic horror get thrown a lot, especially in 624 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:37,640 Speaker 1: the wake of love Crafts contribution to literature. This is 625 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,760 Speaker 1: cosmic horror. When you think about this on the scale 626 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:44,120 Speaker 1: and the magnitude that it's happening at, it makes you 627 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:49,120 Speaker 1: feel utterly insignificant. There's nothing we can do to stop it. Yeah, 628 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:51,279 Speaker 1: I mean I actually when when we were researching this, 629 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:54,759 Speaker 1: I kept thinking back to um uh to Lovecraft and 630 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:56,759 Speaker 1: Clark Ashton Smith and in some of their stories like 631 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,000 Speaker 1: talking about like well, first came the lizard men, and 632 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:01,719 Speaker 1: then came the you know, this cosmic entity you know, 633 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,320 Speaker 1: just talking about like life forms that were in habiting 634 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,600 Speaker 1: uh some you know, fictional version of the Earth, and 635 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 1: in dealing with such like long periods of time that 636 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,879 Speaker 1: the human life and human accomplishments were just so insignificant. Yeah, 637 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:16,960 Speaker 1: and that you kind of feel the same way when 638 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,440 Speaker 1: you start looking at these extinction events that have come 639 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:23,400 Speaker 1: before and the extinction events to come. Absolutely it reminds 640 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,400 Speaker 1: me of m have you ever heard of? This is 641 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:30,799 Speaker 1: an English professor, uh, well known Marxist philosopher. I guess 642 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:34,120 Speaker 1: you could call him Frederick Jamison, uh, and he has 643 00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:36,239 Speaker 1: this This isn't an exact quote, but this is one 644 00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,680 Speaker 1: of these things that they throw at you in graduate school, 645 00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:43,080 Speaker 1: is that the apocalypse is easier for us to imagine 646 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:47,120 Speaker 1: something like this, right than living in a post capitalist society. 647 00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,799 Speaker 1: So it's easier for us to imagine this mass extinction 648 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:57,000 Speaker 1: this world without us, these uh, huge scenarios where we're 649 00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:01,880 Speaker 1: completely insignificant than than his This is his Marxist argument obviously. 650 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,879 Speaker 1: Then then in a world that's like a that's not 651 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,760 Speaker 1: based on this sort of capitalist economy that we currently 652 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:12,080 Speaker 1: live within, right, So like uh, I guess the counterpoint 653 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:14,680 Speaker 1: to him would be like the Star Trek world where 654 00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:18,120 Speaker 1: everybody's got access to the replicators and they can just 655 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,719 Speaker 1: make food and there's no problems. They're able to fly 656 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:27,879 Speaker 1: away from their mass extinction events and perfectly survive them. Yeah, 657 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:29,439 Speaker 1: I mean, I mean it kind of plays into our 658 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: our love affair with apocalypse, right, that we were often 659 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:36,800 Speaker 1: drawn to these tales of some catascostic, some cataclysmic event, 660 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:42,160 Speaker 1: setting the reboot button on on life as we know it. Um, 661 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 1: you know, if nothing else, you know, you have a 662 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:45,960 Speaker 1: bad day of work and you're like, I wish an 663 00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:52,520 Speaker 1: asteroid would hit my employment. Yeah right, Well, turns out 664 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,800 Speaker 1: all that cosmic horror isn't necessarily as bad as we 665 00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,200 Speaker 1: think it is. Okay, We're not as insignificant as it feels. 666 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:03,680 Speaker 1: So from Antaline Knewitz his book, there are some recommendations 667 00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 1: for how we might you know, look back and learn 668 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:10,680 Speaker 1: from species like the Lister source that had survived extinctions 669 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,920 Speaker 1: and learned from them like directly, like live underground. We 670 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,759 Speaker 1: could we could like make shovel faces and attach them 671 00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:19,560 Speaker 1: to to our heads and just dig underground. I don't 672 00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:21,840 Speaker 1: know that that would help us with every type of 673 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,560 Speaker 1: extinction event, especially when the Sun swallows the Earth and 674 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:27,040 Speaker 1: a couple of millions. Well, you know, I think we should, 675 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:31,440 Speaker 1: we should consider even the most mad science of Well, definitely, 676 00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:35,000 Speaker 1: we'll have the shovel Head Division get on it. At 677 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:37,799 Speaker 1: the same time that we're in our ideal world, we 678 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:42,239 Speaker 1: have taxes funding two things, NASA and shovel heads. You know, 679 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:46,239 Speaker 1: I feel like this was a sadly unexplored to a 680 00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:50,160 Speaker 1: certain extent plot in the second season of American Horror Story. 681 00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: You had the Mad Scientists character who I loved, uh, 682 00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:57,520 Speaker 1: and he was making these mutants James Cromwell to James 683 00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:01,239 Speaker 1: Cromwell character. His character's name eludes me, but yeah, like 684 00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:04,680 Speaker 1: a former Nazi doctor, and he wanted to make this 685 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:09,920 Speaker 1: race of mutants that would survive comic becoming Atomic Apocalypse. Um, 686 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:11,680 Speaker 1: so yeah, I think we should keep all options on 687 00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:16,040 Speaker 1: the table. Yeah, alright, well I'm writing down shovel head. Shovelheads, 688 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:20,040 Speaker 1: just consider it everyone. But in the more more more immediately, 689 00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:23,400 Speaker 1: what knew its recommends is that we look at her first. 690 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:27,879 Speaker 1: Phrasing for this is scattering. Essentially. The example for this 691 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:33,640 Speaker 1: is ethnic diasporas right, So, a diaspora, the aspora is 692 00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:37,759 Speaker 1: a geographical dispersion of people separated from their homeland. Right. 693 00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,000 Speaker 1: And then one of the most often used examples of 694 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,520 Speaker 1: this is the Jewish diaspora. Um that's told through the 695 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:47,120 Speaker 1: holiday of Passover. Right. The story is passed on every generation. 696 00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:49,640 Speaker 1: It's the story of Moses and the ten plagues within 697 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:53,560 Speaker 1: Egypt and how Jews fled from Egypt for forty years 698 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,279 Speaker 1: wandering throughout the desert until they eventually found Israel. So 699 00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,360 Speaker 1: people are displaced, their force to go to different geographic 700 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,440 Speaker 1: corners of the Earth. They're forced to, to a certain extent, 701 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,160 Speaker 1: merge without a cultures while also retaining some level of 702 00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:09,040 Speaker 1: their own cultural And so her recommendation is that this 703 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:13,080 Speaker 1: is something that we as a species human beings should 704 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,839 Speaker 1: start coming to terms with and and thinking about as 705 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:21,120 Speaker 1: a strategy. Right, it's scattering essentially, whether it is across 706 00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:25,480 Speaker 1: the globe or out into the stars somewhere. Uh. And 707 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: so even you know, her recommendation here is, you know, 708 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:32,520 Speaker 1: look at Passover as an example that even if whatever 709 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:36,920 Speaker 1: ethnic group or or species in this case has unwillingly 710 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:40,840 Speaker 1: been torn apart by disastrous events or what have you, Um, 711 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,440 Speaker 1: your children will remember where they came from hundreds of 712 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:48,520 Speaker 1: years down the road. Okay, So, um, Passover has passed 713 00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:52,480 Speaker 1: down this this this tradition of memory essentially. Okay, So 714 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,319 Speaker 1: even though you were a mutated shovel head creature that 715 00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:00,520 Speaker 1: we genetically modified to live on an extraterrestrial world, doesn't 716 00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:03,440 Speaker 1: mean you can't celebrate past them exactly. Yeah, They'll be 717 00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:07,000 Speaker 1: like a new holiday that the shovel heads can celebrate 718 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,600 Speaker 1: and and remember you know what life was like on 719 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:13,759 Speaker 1: Earth when we recorded ye old podcasts. Yeah, I think 720 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:15,560 Speaker 1: I love this idea because a lot of it is 721 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,799 Speaker 1: about just recognizing, like the change is part of life 722 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,080 Speaker 1: on Earth in a central part. And you can't take 723 00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:24,800 Speaker 1: any particular phase and evolution or even in human culture 724 00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:27,000 Speaker 1: and say this is we want to stick right here. 725 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:28,879 Speaker 1: We don't want to draw any more cards into our hand, 726 00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:31,000 Speaker 1: and we don't want to discard. We want to stick 727 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,240 Speaker 1: with this hand. No, you have to keep playing the game. Essentially, 728 00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,399 Speaker 1: what she's saying is is exactly that, right, Like, we 729 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:41,640 Speaker 1: can't just sit on our laurels and be satisfied with 730 00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:44,960 Speaker 1: the exact world that we live in now and think 731 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,000 Speaker 1: that that's going to go on forever, because it's not 732 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:51,680 Speaker 1: regardless of extinction level events or not. Uh, we have 733 00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:54,560 Speaker 1: to change in order to survive. It's just the ebb 734 00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,719 Speaker 1: and flow of nature and of humanity. And this is 735 00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:01,600 Speaker 1: why so many scientists most no doable. Stephen Hawkings argue 736 00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:05,239 Speaker 1: that the long term survival of human life depends on 737 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:08,360 Speaker 1: our ability to expand beyond our planet, to expand beyond 738 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:11,319 Speaker 1: our solar system. I mean, even if you're talking about 739 00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:17,320 Speaker 1: the just ultimate long gain, uh, expanding beyond the universe itself. Uh. 740 00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:19,960 Speaker 1: So in that sense, the answer is, hey, if you 741 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:24,040 Speaker 1: really want to survive humans, you have to transcend humanity 742 00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 1: and become some sort of uh, you know, multiverse walking 743 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,560 Speaker 1: god species. And this gets into the you know, her 744 00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:33,440 Speaker 1: second argument essentially, which is the adaptation one. Right, we 745 00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:35,560 Speaker 1: need to adapt, We have to change. We have to 746 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,799 Speaker 1: first of all, like uh, come to grips with that 747 00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:42,399 Speaker 1: idea in itself that we have to change in order 748 00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:46,040 Speaker 1: to survive. Um. And and this isn't just you know, 749 00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:48,080 Speaker 1: we're not just talking about like becoming gods here. We're 750 00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 1: talking about like, uh, making just small changes in are 751 00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:55,720 Speaker 1: realizing what's not working. UM. Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael, 752 00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:58,439 Speaker 1: which is often you know, the book about the talking 753 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:02,799 Speaker 1: gorilla that tells us what's wrong with human culture and 754 00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:04,640 Speaker 1: uh and how bad agriculture is. But it makes a 755 00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:07,480 Speaker 1: lot of strong compelling arguments. And one of the um 756 00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:10,480 Speaker 1: examples that's thrown out is that the human civilization as 757 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,080 Speaker 1: we know it is like a guy in an old 758 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:16,200 Speaker 1: timey uh airplane, you know, the kind of a push 759 00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:18,359 Speaker 1: off the side of a hill and the guys in there, 760 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,120 Speaker 1: and he's peddling as hard as he can, and he's 761 00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,320 Speaker 1: like pulling levers to flap the wings and it's not flying. 762 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:28,040 Speaker 1: It's plummeting, but he feels like it's flying. But but 763 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:30,719 Speaker 1: but part of our responsibility is to realize, Hey, the 764 00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,760 Speaker 1: plane that we think is soaring and flying and ascending, 765 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:38,120 Speaker 1: it's actually descending. And then realizing and then making the 766 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:41,400 Speaker 1: realization we can we can do things to change this airplane. 767 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:43,839 Speaker 1: We can make it a little less of a loadstone. 768 00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:45,680 Speaker 1: It may be a little more of a of an 769 00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:50,040 Speaker 1: actual vehicle. And you know, touching on this is of course, 770 00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:52,560 Speaker 1: you know, we'll get this is touching back into the 771 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:57,040 Speaker 1: preachy sort of global warming aspect of this conversation, which 772 00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:59,279 Speaker 1: is that, you know, we really have to come to 773 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:02,800 Speaker 1: terms with the fact that human beings are causing climate change, 774 00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:07,200 Speaker 1: that's the first thing. And how we're going to reduce 775 00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:10,600 Speaker 1: that basically, right, reduced greenhouse emissions. They have to be 776 00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:16,239 Speaker 1: reduced by fifty by twenty fifty, that's theoretically within our lifetimes, 777 00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:20,920 Speaker 1: has to happen for us to stave off that that 778 00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,799 Speaker 1: that one degree shift in temperature change that we're talking 779 00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:28,160 Speaker 1: about earlier. Um, and there's easy ways to do this. 780 00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:30,680 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna spend you know, the rest of our 781 00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:34,799 Speaker 1: time here rattling it all off, but you know, look 782 00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:37,080 Speaker 1: it up online. Combine trips in your car, you know, 783 00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,440 Speaker 1: car pooling, buy more efficient cars, adjust your thermostat in 784 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:43,600 Speaker 1: the winter, bike to work, or cycle. All of these things, CANNA, 785 00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:49,840 Speaker 1: you know, essentially help with reducing greenhouse emissions. Uh. Basically 786 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:52,680 Speaker 1: just just look at this one example here, So if 787 00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:56,040 Speaker 1: every American replaced one incandescent bulb with one of those 788 00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,239 Speaker 1: energy saving ones, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would 789 00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,879 Speaker 1: be the equivalent of taking eight hundred thousand cars off 790 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,560 Speaker 1: the road. So that's you know a small thing. We 791 00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:09,680 Speaker 1: we talked about this love crafty and sense of insignificance, 792 00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:12,000 Speaker 1: but that's a relatively small thing that everybody can do 793 00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:17,520 Speaker 1: that's gonna you know, slightly stave off the coming apocalypse. 794 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:19,880 Speaker 1: That's not going through life with a gas mask or 795 00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:22,640 Speaker 1: some sort of a weird alien tentacle creature or like 796 00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:26,880 Speaker 1: attached your spinal column or anything. That's that's very doable. Yeah, 797 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:29,200 Speaker 1: and you know, new Its touches on this in her 798 00:46:29,239 --> 00:46:32,040 Speaker 1: book as well by talking about these, she went and 799 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,440 Speaker 1: talked to a lot of really interesting, kind of future 800 00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:38,440 Speaker 1: oriented scientists at universities around the country. One in particular 801 00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:42,080 Speaker 1: was looking at how we could use photosynthesis as like 802 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:46,400 Speaker 1: a method that we could replicate within our solar cells, 803 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:52,080 Speaker 1: essentially by building artificial photosynthesis. Uh. It's called biomamesis, and 804 00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:55,200 Speaker 1: the practice is basically you're imitating biological life forms to 805 00:46:55,280 --> 00:47:00,279 Speaker 1: make artificial systems as efficient you know, biomamic right. Yeah, 806 00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:02,359 Speaker 1: So there's this idea that you know, if we can 807 00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:05,400 Speaker 1: switch over to some kind of uh energy system that 808 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:10,240 Speaker 1: utilizes photosynthesis instead of you know, carbon emitting fuels such uh, 809 00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:12,200 Speaker 1: that that you know, would be in much better shape. 810 00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:15,279 Speaker 1: And they she even looked into the um. There's this 811 00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:20,160 Speaker 1: algae called ciano bacteria I believe, uh, And there's this 812 00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:23,239 Speaker 1: scientist I believe it's at the University of Washington that's 813 00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,760 Speaker 1: looking at mutated versions of this that release hydrogen instead 814 00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,439 Speaker 1: of oxygen, you know, like like like normal plant life does. 815 00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:32,760 Speaker 1: And it would allow for this clean fuel production because 816 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,000 Speaker 1: you would have hydrogen being released, you'd be utilizing the 817 00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,799 Speaker 1: hydrogen for your energy, and the only byproduct that would 818 00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:41,839 Speaker 1: be releasing is water essentially. You know, so we're talking 819 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:46,440 Speaker 1: about biofuels essentially here. Okay, so we touched upon this earlier, 820 00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:49,719 Speaker 1: that memory is really important to our survival, right, the 821 00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,879 Speaker 1: idea that yes, we can scatter as a species, whether 822 00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:55,600 Speaker 1: it's across the world or it's across the planets of 823 00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:57,960 Speaker 1: the universe, but there needs to be some kind of 824 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:01,839 Speaker 1: built in memory system for the human species to learn 825 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:05,560 Speaker 1: from its previous mistakes, learn from history essentially, right, Yeah, yeah, 826 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:07,239 Speaker 1: I mean it's I can see it's sort of being 827 00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,000 Speaker 1: a two sided thing. Like one is just the pure 828 00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:12,080 Speaker 1: vanity of saying, hey, this is like we have a continued, 829 00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,719 Speaker 1: continued line here um, and we have the memories of 830 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,600 Speaker 1: what came before. But then on the other hand, science 831 00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:21,840 Speaker 1: itself is about knowing, you know, what has come before, 832 00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:24,759 Speaker 1: having this accumulated knowledge and knowing what works and doesn't work, 833 00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:28,160 Speaker 1: and for humanity to survive. I mean, it's worth the 834 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:33,200 Speaker 1: point now where science is essentially humanity, if not something greater. Yeah, 835 00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:37,000 Speaker 1: I mean this begs the question why do we want 836 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:40,719 Speaker 1: to survive? Right? Like, why what is our urge to 837 00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,480 Speaker 1: make it through this sixth mass extinction? Why do we 838 00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:47,160 Speaker 1: need to do that? I would argue that you know, 839 00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:50,160 Speaker 1: so that our people endure for the long term, and 840 00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:54,400 Speaker 1: that you know, the legacy of our species is carried on. 841 00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:57,920 Speaker 1: All these memories are brought throughout time. This understanding of 842 00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:02,879 Speaker 1: the world, this understanding of ourselves, it's not lost. Yeah, 843 00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,319 Speaker 1: I mean, I think it comes down to two things. 844 00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:07,080 Speaker 1: I mean, on one hand, you have, like the basic 845 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:09,840 Speaker 1: genetic mission in any organism is to pass its seed 846 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,040 Speaker 1: on and see the continuing the continuation of that particular 847 00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:16,480 Speaker 1: genetic line, and so far so that becomes extrapolated in 848 00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:19,600 Speaker 1: this quest for the survival of the human race. But 849 00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:23,120 Speaker 1: then also it ties into the problem of immortality that 850 00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:26,799 Speaker 1: that on you not a very basic level. A lot 851 00:49:26,840 --> 00:49:28,960 Speaker 1: of what goes on in our culture is about us 852 00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:32,080 Speaker 1: struggling with the reality that we are, each individual. Each 853 00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:36,080 Speaker 1: person listening to this today, he's going to die, right, Absolutely. 854 00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:38,919 Speaker 1: The idea that we as individuals are going to die 855 00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,719 Speaker 1: is horrible to think of. The idea that we as 856 00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:46,880 Speaker 1: a species are all going to die is practically unthinkable. Yeah, 857 00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,279 Speaker 1: or is it? I don't know. I guess the thing is, 858 00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:51,520 Speaker 1: it's like, you can come to terms with your your 859 00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:54,440 Speaker 1: own personal mortality, but it it can make a bit 860 00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:59,480 Speaker 1: more sense if there is a larger cultural, even species 861 00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:03,239 Speaker 1: wide in mortality, because maybe, just maybe your memory could 862 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:05,040 Speaker 1: survive in there. Maybe you'd be one of the few 863 00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:08,480 Speaker 1: lucky individuals like, uh, you know, you'll be You'll be 864 00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:11,799 Speaker 1: an Aristotle, You'll be uh, you'll be a confused to see, 865 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,759 Speaker 1: you'll be somebody whose name actually resonates to a meaning, 866 00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:20,919 Speaker 1: meaningful degree throughout the long term. Yeah, you'll have a legacy. Yeah. 867 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:23,120 Speaker 1: And so like, let's let's pull back from this for 868 00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:25,960 Speaker 1: a second and just look at like a I say small, 869 00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:27,920 Speaker 1: I'm gonna say a smaller example, but it's actually for 870 00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:31,520 Speaker 1: a much bigger animal than us. Okay, so whales, take 871 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:35,360 Speaker 1: whales for example. Memory is important to all animals survival, 872 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:37,680 Speaker 1: and whales are a perfect example of this, right they 873 00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:43,879 Speaker 1: teach one another the maps for their migration patterns throughout generations. 874 00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:46,960 Speaker 1: This is just a simple example of why memory is important. 875 00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:49,120 Speaker 1: It doesn't have to do necessarily with the vanity of 876 00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:51,800 Speaker 1: wanting to have a legacy right and be remembered forever. 877 00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:54,919 Speaker 1: Although I can certainly relate to that. I'm sure most 878 00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:57,200 Speaker 1: human beings have a certain amount of ego inside of 879 00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:01,640 Speaker 1: them that resonates with that, right, but uh, more importantly, 880 00:51:01,680 --> 00:51:04,840 Speaker 1: just this idea that like, this is the route to survival, 881 00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,640 Speaker 1: This is the way that we've done, This is the 882 00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:10,600 Speaker 1: way to go, and it will get you know, lead 883 00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:14,040 Speaker 1: to the continuation of our family and of our species. Yeah, 884 00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:16,040 Speaker 1: this is the way you use your shovel head to 885 00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:20,879 Speaker 1: dig exactly right. You can't just expect them to know 886 00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:23,160 Speaker 1: how to shovel their way under the earth with their face. 887 00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:27,480 Speaker 1: So alright, So Nuance has got these two recommendations that 888 00:51:27,600 --> 00:51:29,880 Speaker 1: she really advocates for at the end of her book, 889 00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:33,360 Speaker 1: and I think these these are kind of where she's 890 00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:37,400 Speaker 1: a saying something new, saying something that hasn't necessarily been 891 00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:39,960 Speaker 1: brought to the community before. The two things are this 892 00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:44,319 Speaker 1: that we as a species needs to invest more in 893 00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:48,200 Speaker 1: our cities. Uh and I'll explain more about that later. 894 00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:50,759 Speaker 1: That's the first one, and the second is what we've 895 00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:52,759 Speaker 1: been hinting at all along, which is we need to 896 00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:57,760 Speaker 1: explore beyond this planet because no doubt about it, sometime, 897 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,640 Speaker 1: whether it's in the next hundred years, are the next 898 00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:03,359 Speaker 1: fifteen million years, there's going to be an event that's 899 00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:08,040 Speaker 1: going to wipe out life on Earth. Uh. So the 900 00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,919 Speaker 1: city part this is a really interesting thing. So check. 901 00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:15,400 Speaker 1: This is a great statistic that she pulled out in 902 00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:18,440 Speaker 1: the past decade. Okay, so we're just talking about, like, 903 00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:22,000 Speaker 1: from two thousand five to now, the number of people 904 00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:25,040 Speaker 1: on Earth that live in cities has surpassed those that 905 00:52:25,080 --> 00:52:28,040 Speaker 1: live outside of them. I didn't I didn't expect that 906 00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:30,799 Speaker 1: when I read that in her book. I thought I 907 00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:32,480 Speaker 1: would have thought that there were more people living in 908 00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:35,920 Speaker 1: rural communities, but I guess not. Uh, And it's it's 909 00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:40,400 Speaker 1: expected to rise. United States. Uh sorry, the United Nations 910 00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:44,680 Speaker 1: Population Division estimates that sixty seven percent of humanity is 911 00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:48,960 Speaker 1: going to live in urban areas by So you know, 912 00:52:49,920 --> 00:52:52,920 Speaker 1: that's why she's advocating, we really need to figure out 913 00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:55,440 Speaker 1: a way to make our cities sustainable, right, So that 914 00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:59,240 Speaker 1: means the cities need to be able to sustain damage 915 00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:01,600 Speaker 1: such as from Earth quick. They need to be able 916 00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:04,239 Speaker 1: to feed everyone in that that city. You need the 917 00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:10,040 Speaker 1: city to actually uh be less susceptible to the ravages 918 00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:13,200 Speaker 1: of disease, which, of course cities have you know, since 919 00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:16,640 Speaker 1: really the emergence of major metropolitan areas have served as 920 00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:21,120 Speaker 1: as of incubators, incubators for diseases such as as syphilis. 921 00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:23,759 Speaker 1: And then there's what we were talking about earlier, which 922 00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,359 Speaker 1: is that they have to offer sustainable energy to their citizens. Right. 923 00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:29,959 Speaker 1: So this idea that we were talking about earlier about 924 00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:34,480 Speaker 1: biofuels and you know, utilizing photosynthesis, whatever it is, whatever 925 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:38,360 Speaker 1: method that we end up using for for clean energy 926 00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:41,120 Speaker 1: that's sustainable and that we can keep using it for 927 00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:43,640 Speaker 1: a long period of time. Cities have to figure out 928 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,439 Speaker 1: a way to make that happen. Right, Um, they can't 929 00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:50,960 Speaker 1: exist without agriculture. Uh, and they're also you know, so 930 00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:56,919 Speaker 1: we can't just you know, abandoned rural areas. We need 931 00:53:56,960 --> 00:53:59,120 Speaker 1: them as well. So yeah, we need the food that 932 00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:01,279 Speaker 1: comes from them, you feed the city. So there needs 933 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:04,319 Speaker 1: to be you know, cooperation between these communities. And then 934 00:54:04,600 --> 00:54:06,720 Speaker 1: this is an interesting aspect that I hadn't thought about, 935 00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:10,200 Speaker 1: but she points out that cities in and of themselves 936 00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:14,520 Speaker 1: are monuments, their constructs of human memory. So, you know, 937 00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,160 Speaker 1: our cities, depending on who's in power at the time 938 00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:21,640 Speaker 1: that they're built, whether it's you know, the churches or 939 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:27,360 Speaker 1: nationalistic organizations or or corporations. You see in the architecture 940 00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:30,319 Speaker 1: throughout a city. What was the dominant force at the 941 00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:33,360 Speaker 1: time that it was built right, whether it's extravagant churches 942 00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:37,720 Speaker 1: or the beautiful large buildings that are built to sustain 943 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:41,200 Speaker 1: the government, or the skyscrapers that we work in here 944 00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:45,360 Speaker 1: in Atlanta, you know, working for big companies. You know it. 945 00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:47,480 Speaker 1: You know when you look at the vanity that goes 946 00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:50,719 Speaker 1: into a city, when you look at the disease incubation, 947 00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:54,040 Speaker 1: when you look at the the energy drain and and 948 00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:57,040 Speaker 1: the amount of energy it takes to feed individuals in it. 949 00:54:57,320 --> 00:54:59,480 Speaker 1: I mean, it really makes it seem like the city, 950 00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:03,320 Speaker 1: the modern city is kind of a tumor of human culture, 951 00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:06,640 Speaker 1: Like it's the the human culture as tumor um. It 952 00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:09,480 Speaker 1: brings to mind. I believe it was in Grant Morrison's 953 00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:12,120 Speaker 1: The Invisibles, where there's at one point one of the 954 00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:14,960 Speaker 1: characters has a vision of planets. They are just nothing 955 00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:18,520 Speaker 1: but like empty cities. Yeah, like where the the idea 956 00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:21,719 Speaker 1: of city has just completely ravaged an ecosystem. Yeah, that's 957 00:55:21,719 --> 00:55:24,560 Speaker 1: a classic Morrison thing that he revisits over and over again, 958 00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:29,440 Speaker 1: the the the idea of humans as disease as cancer 959 00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:33,680 Speaker 1: and then subsequently using that as a way to some 960 00:55:33,680 --> 00:55:37,080 Speaker 1: somehow survive. Right, So like harnessing that somehow. Um. I 961 00:55:37,120 --> 00:55:38,839 Speaker 1: think he had this story once. I don't. I don't 962 00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:41,400 Speaker 1: know if it was ever published, but where there was 963 00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:45,600 Speaker 1: a person who had had a tumor, I believe it 964 00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:48,959 Speaker 1: was in their lung and they had learned they turned 965 00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:51,960 Speaker 1: it into a familiar, like a magical familiar, and so 966 00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:54,880 Speaker 1: the their their tumor was was helping them instead of 967 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:59,120 Speaker 1: hurting them. It's interesting metaphorical ideas, but that's essentially that 968 00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:02,000 Speaker 1: you know, you get getting back to the reality of 969 00:56:02,040 --> 00:56:04,120 Speaker 1: notes as premise here, Like that's the argument, how do 970 00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:06,919 Speaker 1: you keep this this idea of city and this idea 971 00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:10,200 Speaker 1: of human civilization entirely? How does it become less of 972 00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:16,640 Speaker 1: a disease and more of a sustainable like hybrid existence exactly? Yeah, 973 00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:19,719 Speaker 1: And then you know the last one is essentially you know, 974 00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:21,799 Speaker 1: what we've been talking about all along here is that 975 00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:25,959 Speaker 1: we need a long term plan to get off planet Earth. 976 00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:28,719 Speaker 1: That's it, plain and simple. We've got to build, we've 977 00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:32,160 Speaker 1: got to explore. We should probably be investing more in 978 00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:37,000 Speaker 1: uh simply just observing space around us, even if it's 979 00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:40,000 Speaker 1: not uh, you know, in terms of figuring out a 980 00:56:40,040 --> 00:56:43,799 Speaker 1: way to propel ourselves outside this galaxy or not like 981 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:45,600 Speaker 1: you were saying earlier, you know, just in terms of 982 00:56:45,640 --> 00:56:48,600 Speaker 1: the asteroid impact thing. We need to be on top 983 00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:52,279 Speaker 1: of our game. Yeah, especially as we increasingly play this 984 00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:54,880 Speaker 1: long game of survival. I mean just in terms of 985 00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,280 Speaker 1: the odds because we've been around such a short time 986 00:56:58,880 --> 00:57:01,279 Speaker 1: and we've seen the five I have extinction events that 987 00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,280 Speaker 1: have preceded us. So in order to keep those odds 988 00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:06,960 Speaker 1: going to remain in the sort of you know, cosmic 989 00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:11,000 Speaker 1: Vegas game of survival, we've got to we've got to 990 00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:13,279 Speaker 1: to learn to bend the rules to our favor. Yeah. 991 00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:15,960 Speaker 1: Uh so, I mean I don't have a whole lot 992 00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:17,880 Speaker 1: more to add to that other than that, you know, 993 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:20,240 Speaker 1: I think that if you want to know more about 994 00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:24,360 Speaker 1: both her recommendations for making cities better and for coming 995 00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:27,160 Speaker 1: up with long term solutions for space travel, I would 996 00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:31,600 Speaker 1: highly recommend reading her book. Again, it's a scatter adapt 997 00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:34,800 Speaker 1: and remember how humans will Survive a mass extinction, And 998 00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:37,760 Speaker 1: that's by Anneleine new It's you can order it on Amazon, 999 00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:40,880 Speaker 1: probably buy it in your local bookstore. I've been reading 1000 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:44,480 Speaker 1: it off of my kindle. Cool. All right, Well, there 1001 00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:47,520 Speaker 1: you have it, um A quicker run through the five 1002 00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:50,960 Speaker 1: extinction events that came before and uh, you know, preview 1003 00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:54,320 Speaker 1: of the ongoing extinction event and possible events to come 1004 00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:57,200 Speaker 1: and how we can survive it. Uh. In the meantime, 1005 00:57:57,240 --> 00:57:59,480 Speaker 1: if you want to check out those resources that we've 1006 00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:02,000 Speaker 1: discussed that video, some of those how stuff works articles, 1007 00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:03,480 Speaker 1: be sure to check out stuff to blow your mind 1008 00:58:03,520 --> 00:58:05,840 Speaker 1: dot com. There you will find a landing page for 1009 00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:08,680 Speaker 1: this episode. With those outgoing links, you also find a 1010 00:58:08,680 --> 00:58:12,040 Speaker 1: host of other podcast episodes flog post videos and links 1011 00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:14,880 Speaker 1: out to social media accounts, and if you would like 1012 00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:17,000 Speaker 1: to add to the conversation, let us know what do 1013 00:58:17,040 --> 00:58:19,520 Speaker 1: you think about mass extinctions? Think we're right or wrong 1014 00:58:19,560 --> 00:58:22,320 Speaker 1: about what is potentially causing the current one that we're in, 1015 00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:25,160 Speaker 1: or have other solutions for us getting out of this one. 1016 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,360 Speaker 1: Let us know at blow the Mind at how stuff 1017 00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:30,720 Speaker 1: works dot com, or get in touch with us via 1018 00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:37,440 Speaker 1: social media for more on this and thousands of other topics. 1019 00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:45,000 Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com