A sharp decrease in the diversity and abundance of macroscopic life.
Questions tagged [extinction-event]
16 questions
59
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Are people on average more likely to die in an extinction event than in a car crash?
An article in The Atlantic makes following claim:
Human Extinction Isn't That Unlikely
“A typical person is more than five times as likely to die in an extinction event as in a car crash,” says a new report
This is all based on assuming that there…
vartec
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Do we have enough nuclear weapons to wipe out all of humanity?
I have heard several claims that we have enough nuclear weapons to wipe out all of humanity, but has anyone actually done an exact calculation of whether we do?
The claim includes:
All of the nuclear weapons which are currently built by the whole…
Casebash
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33
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Did humans almost become extinct about 70,000 years ago?
I received this screenshot which is actually a post on Facebook by 8facts. It claims that humans nearly became extinct 70,000 years ago when the population sunk to 2,000.
Is there any evidence that this claim is correct?
agha rehan abbas
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What is going to happen in 2012?
The Mayan calendar completes its 5,125 year cycle, on 21 December 2012. Is there any evidence they foresaw the end-of-the-world?
Richard Stelling
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Would humans starve if spiders disappeared?
In this Washington Post article, Norman Platnick of the American Museum of Natural History is quoted as saying the following:
If spiders disappeared, we would face famine.
Spiders are primary controllers of insects. Without spiders, all of our…
pacoverflow
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Does human survival depend on bees?
I see several websites claiming that without bees, mankind will be extinct in four years. Does human survival depend on bees?
Citing Albert Einstein's saying to the effect that mankind would
become extinct four years after honey bees disappeared…
Jan Vladimir Mostert
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What risk do pole reversals pose to human civilization?
What are the chances that the magnetic poles of earth will switch during the next decade?
If the event were to occur, what would be the effect to our civilization?
Would computer hard drives get erased by the magnetic force?
Would our navigation…
Christian
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Have leap days confused the calculated date for the "end of the Mayan calendar"?
At the beginning of the 2012, I predicted that we would see a number of false debunkings of the Mayan Calendar Apocalypse, which would depend on their own misunderstandings of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar. I believe my prediction has already…
Oddthinking
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Are species becoming extinct at a rate of 0.01%-0.1% per annum?
The World Wide Fund for Nature warns that
there is, in fact, a very serious biodiversity crisis.
And illustrates this with an unreferenced "scientific analysis"
These experts calculate that between 0.01 and 0.1% of all species will become extinct…
BlueMoon93
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Does Fermi's paradox imply that civilizations will self destruct inevitably in a short time?
We should be able to estimate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy according to the Drake equation:
By plugging in realistic values we obtain the result that there should be other civilizations in our…
Sklivvz
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Who first made the connection between the Mayan calendar and something bad happening in 2012?
If you have any engagement with current pop culture you've heard about the impending apocalypse in 2012. The date is usually given as December 21, 2012, supposedly derived from the end of some or another Mayan calendar. My question is, who first…
Scott Hamilton
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Is there an amphibian mass die off and if so, what is causing it?
http://frogmatters.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/scientists-scramble-to-solve-amphibian-death-puzzle/
Are there thousands of species dying off due to a chitrid fungus? I tend to be very skeptical of this (for instance, how does one even track the number…
Blind Mouse
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5
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Is comet ISON going to kill us?
I've just heard on the news that some comet named ISON is passing by the Sun. And they said that it will split and then it may hit us. They are citing Nostradamus prophecies and stuff. It appears that he predicted an event like this. Also they said…
Alex
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Is there a 10% chance of 6-10°C of warming this century?
From a 2016 The Atlantic article, Human Extinction Isn't That Unlikely:
UN-approved climate models estimate that the risk of six to ten degrees Celsius of warming ...
“On a more plausible emissions scenario ... a 10-percent risk,”
The quote is…
FrozenKiwi
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Is animal agriculture the leading cause of species extinction?
The cause of species extinction interests me.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is a documentary that attacks the environmental damage caused by animal agriculture.
Their facts page states (with references):
Animal agriculture is the leading…
Looft
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