I am writing in response to your request that I analyze Stewart Brand's “The Case for De-Extinction: Why We Should Bring Back the Woolly Mammoth” and make a recommendation for or against publication in The Shorthorn. I have considered the rhetorical appeals of Brand’s piece and determined that a large majority of students would find this to be unappealing due to the large amount of Christians, Catholics, Muslims, and other religious groups on campus, so therefore, it should not be published. This topic is very controversial and most likely will not persuade the UTA community in agreeing with Brand’'s viewpoints.…
Humans are the reason for the sixth extinction. Species are dropping at an incredibly fast rate. This is mostly because of climate change and ocean acidification affecting the planets biodiversity. As the climate changes animals are unable to adapt. For an example as the earth begins to warm, ice begins to melt, which will cause major harm for animals, including us. With the ice melting it will cause polar bears to have reduce access to food which will cause harm to their bodies and there cubs. These events are happening all over the world and humans are the only ones who can stop…
|"Human Beings Will Be Extinct Within One Hundred Years." Are Mass Extinctions Inevitable? Ed. Noah Berlatsky. Detroit: Greenhaven |…
Are we running out of time? they say. How soon until the earth falls out of balance until life ceases to exist? The facts are clear, and they're saying: not very long. We're letting glaciers melt, gas burn, and rainforests be destroyed.…
Our environment is our responsibility and it is time that everyone starts working towards caring and protecting it. Although our planet is at stake and protecting it won’t happen overnight, addressing global issues of climate change needs to an integral activity for each individual. Human activity has changed our planet drastically so the actions of people need to be regulated and mitigated to ensure that the planet’s life becomes more manageable and well cared for. By doing so, we will be able to preserve the planet, humankind, and the species and combat the sixth extinction as advised by Elizabeth Kolbert. This is a very serious issue and people need to start applying the ideas of McDonough and O’Connor as well as Bill Gates. Rachel Carson, credited by many to have brought the issues of conservation to the public eye, believed that “people care about the problem of sharing the planet with other species” and that increasing this awareness would be enough to avert the global impact of Kolbert’s “sixth…
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, an award winning book by New York Times author Elizabeth Kolbert dives into the sixth mass extinction on earth, but unlike past mass extinctions, the direct cause of this one is from human impact. Humans impact the world negatively simply by the way they live, as Elizabeth says in the book “Though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it’s not clear that he ever really did.” ^1 Where it might have been more true in early human history, that humans lived as animals do, in harmony with the world; humans have exponentially increased their global negative impact by use. Human activity stems into three basic groups of global impacts which affect the…
Climate change will be the end of this world as we know it, according to David Wallace-Wells, the author of “The Uninhabitable Earth,” an article which has spread through this country in something of a frenzy. Wallace-Wells’ article is fast-paced with alarmist tactics to target readers who believe they are in sync with the dangers of climate change, or those who may be on the fence about whether there is enough evidence to support the prevention movement.…
Should humans be concerned with the extinction rate? Yes, we should think about how our actions affect every living organism within our ecosystem, as we all share and is dependent on its resources. Over population, over-consumption, and consumerism are some of the reasons that our environment is in its current condition. As the earth’s population increases, the use of natural resources increases. More and more the impact of humans on the environment is becoming a greater issue for our society. As humans we are dependent upon the environment for its raw materials we use for food and shelter. “The demands of industrialization require that we use our natural resources in order to run our technology. However, the demands of future generations mean that we must use these resources wisely and in a sustainable manner so that society does not stop because of our lack of concern” (Weinclaw, 2009). It would be in the best interest of our future generations that we strive to preserve samples of biomes by limiting our footprint on those that we can.…
While one tends to have the general idea as to what’s happening around the world, it isn’t until someone comes around and tells you exactly what’s going on that you become truly aware. This thought was the first to cross my mind while I was reading The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. Before getting into the details of this book review, I would like to preface it by saying that before beginning this class I had an idea of what was happening around the globe. I was not so uninformed as to say that I didn’t know the climate was changing and species were gradually disappearing, but rather I was unaware as to just how quickly this was taking place. I can say that in the back of my mind there has…
In class we learn about invasive species and how they affect the species around them. We can describe humans as invasive species because we are very adaptable and grow quickly. We harm other organisms when we take over their habitat. We are killing off other species and growing. We have not yet learned to live amongst other species, and can only live off of them. This book shows us how much damage we have done to those around us and how the damage can only be completely undone by us simply disappearing forever. Also, in class we learn about biological diversity and why it is important. This book shows us that life would flourish without us, maintaining this biodiversity. We as humans are not helping the cause by killing off thousands of species and taking over their land and food. We are not helping by polluting the environment and making this planet harmful to breathe. We are not helping by contaminating the water with our fertilizer and factory runoff. The World Without Us shows us that there needs to be a change to save the planet and make it a place where everyone can live, not just…
One undeniable outcome that all humans share in is our underlying fate, because no matter how much we may detest it or how much we may try to realistically reverse time to extend our existence, every fleeting moment must be cherished because our extinction is looming and our days are numbered, given the inevitable reality and inexorable truth that lies within humans is that we will all perish or die one day, regardless. This same sentiment holds true for the Neanderthals, but it also begs the questions how did they ultimately meet their end, what existential circumstances lead to their downfall, and if Neanderthals possessed at least a minimal amount of astute cognitive intelligence, why did the Modern Humans flourish while Neanderthals ceased…
WARNING! Life as we know it will cease to exist in about 10-15 years. Costal areas will flood, the air will be tainted with carbon dioxide, all volcanoes will erupt, and mountains will slide into oceans. We are to blame for this terrible disaster, humans have created global warming!…
Climate change is an incredibly serious issue with so many hazards and risks. If we let it go any further than it already has, it will ultimately lower the quality of life on earth, as well as cause several more problems, as if we already don’t have enough. Yes, it will be much warmer, and eventually we will have fantastic weather a majority of the time, however the amount of disadvantages far outweigh the good. An abundance of animals will slowly begin to go extinct, and as the title entails, devastating climate issues will arise, like more droughts in southern regions, much more precipitation in higher regions, as well as other occurrences like forest fires and hurricanes. It’s easy to disregard these matters, since all of this seems like a slow process and it hardly affects us now. Yet, as the technology industry continues to develop, and the need for polluting factories increases, we’ll be getting closer and closer to destroying the easy way of life on this planet. Perhaps in our lifetime, we won’t be able to witness the extreme effects of climate change, although if we keep doing what we’re doing, our future generations will not be in for an easy ride.…
Yes, I believe that humans should be concerned with the extinction rate. Humans are the cause of things such as habitat destruction, hunting, pollution, disease, global warming, exploitation and urbanization which are all leading to the extinction of many species. Not all species are affected by all of these factors, but all species are affected by at least one.…
The author, Alan Weisman, then continues on and discusses his other proposals of how humans are affecting the environment. He talks about the increase of carbon dioxide emissions in every day human life and its affect on global warming. He mentions how the discovery of paleontology proves that extinction of species could be…