The Planet is Fine

It’s humans who are screwed.

I am on board with reducing my environmental footprint, using less plastic, eating local food or home produced food if possible.

But don’t get me wrong. The planet is fine. It has survived a lot in its day and it will survive humans too. As long as our sun is burning, there will be life on this planet. It’s in the Goldilocks zone, where it’s not too hot, and not too cold. The planet is a closed system so resources can’t just disappear. For example, climate change is not going to remove the total water available, but it’s going to change it from being available as fresh water in lakes and rivers and streams, to being available as water vapour in the air, or salt water in the oceans and seas. Far less useful.

The planet has been through mass extinctions before. 251 million years ago, a major eruption caused life on earth to almost go extinct, killing off 96% of known species. This was the third great extinction.

Scientists think we’re on the brink of a human-caused sixth great extinction.

Yes, you read that right. Sixth.

There have been five great extinctions so far, each of which killed off at least 75% of the known species on the planet.

So we seem to be in the middle of the sixth. And the planet will survive. Ecosystems will adapt and change to a new normal, new temperatures, and new sources of water. New species will evolve that are adapted to the new climate.