Somewhere in the oeuvre of
Hans Blumenberg's Metaphorology he stated that
humans are vandalising God's creation having usurped the power of
sole owners of the world and the rest of the universe.
In
more popular circles the same has finally been
mentioned by a Pope: "If we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us."
"
We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on."
BBC
The lust to eradicate life from our only common home is a self destructive suicidal mental condition.
For some time we have been working hard at making the sixth mass extinction possible at ever greater speed:
Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction
"The
oft-repeated claim that Earth’s biota is entering a sixth “mass
extinction” depends on clearly demonstrating that current extinction
rates are far above the “background” rates prevailing in the five
previous mass extinctions. Earlier estimates of extinction rates have
been criticized for using assumptions that might overestimate the
severity of the extinction crisis. We assess, using extremely
conservative assumptions, whether human activities are causing a mass
extinction. First, we use a recent estimate of a background rate of 2
mammal extinctions per 10,000 species per 100 years (that is, 2 E/MSY),
which is twice as high as widely used previous estimates. We then
compare this rate with the current rate of mammal and vertebrate
extinctions. The latter is conservatively low because listing a species
as extinct requires meeting stringent criteria. Even under our
assumptions, which would tend to minimize evidence of an incipient mass
extinction, the average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last
century is up to 114 times higher than the background rate. Under the 2
E/MSY background rate, the number of species that have gone extinct in
the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon,
between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear. These estimates reveal an
exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries,
indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way.
Averting a dramatic decay of biodiversity and the subsequent loss of
ecosystem services is still possible through intensified conservation
efforts, but that window of opportunity is rapidly closing."
Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, Anthony D. Barnosky, Andrés García, Robert M. Pringle and Todd M. Palmer.
Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction.
Science Advances, 2015 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400253
Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here, Stanford Report, June 19, 2015
Pope Francis’ encyclical:
On care for our common home,
Guardian excerpt, (for the impatient) 18.06.2015
Karl Heinrich Leopold Deschner,
A Criminal History of Christianity.
Aristotle,
Nicomachean Ethics
Videos:
Paul Ehrlich, Stanford researcher warns sixth mass extinction is here,
video
Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber,
Climate change: state of play, Director of
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
video
Update:
Extinction of more threatened Australian species is not inevitable, 08.07.2015
James Trezise is a policy coordinator for the Australian Conservation Foundation
We need to tighten the law to protect wildlife homes, 13.07.2015 Don Anton , The Conversation
IMAGES:
Adel Abdessemed,
Habibi Sculpture, Berlin
