Quotes for All
We can’t say that when x happens we get a mass extinction. To the extent we understand mass extinction, one has been caused by glaciation event, one has been caused by a massive climate change, and one has been caused by an asteroid. These events turn out to have no precedent. Elizabeth Kolbert
The extinctions ongoing worldwide promise to be at least as great as the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the age of dinosaurs. E. O. Wilson
No matter what we call it, poison is still poison, death is still death, and industrial civilization is still causing the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet. Derrick Jensen
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception. Carl Sagan
Part of what I wanted to do in my book was point out that we have almost reached the point where we can prevent a mass extinction with the science and technology we have today. We can build carbon neutral cities. Annalee Newitz
The early Triassic was a period when the planet was recovering from the worst mass extinction it had ever known – that was the end Permian extinction, where climate change caused in part by mega-volcanic eruptions wiped out ninety-five percent of life on Earth. It took about ten or twenty million years for the planet’s … Read more
If we return abruptly to a Miocene-like climate, it’s reasonable to think that we would experience a lot of extinctions, and maybe even a mass extinction in the long term. Would the life on Earth be radically different? Of course we can’t say for sure, but I think a lot of it would look familiar. … Read more
So science alone cannot solve this problem [mass extinction of humans]. It’s something that we can only tackle by bringing science together with culture, economics, and even politics. Annalee Newitz
I would want us to start our quest to survive mass extinction by rethinking how we build cities. Cities should be commonplaces of production, rather than consumption – they should be producing food, and fuel. Annalee Newitz
To be fair, if we are having a mass extinction, we’re in the early stages of it. I think it’s knowing facts like that which has made me less fearful about the future. Mass extinction is a long, complicated process that we are just now beginning to understand – and likewise, we are just beginning … Read more