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shirk-work t1_iuzpqub wrote

Reply to comment by BrownThunderMK in ‘Carbon timebomb’: climate crisis threatens to destroy Congo peatlands by sector3011

We won't be the first organism to cause a mass extinction but we will be the first "intelligent life". The first photosynthesizing life poisoned the atmosphere with oxygen and nearly killed everything.

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f1del1us t1_iuzvd8l wrote

What will be interesting will be the life that evolves to deal with the mess we leave behind (looking at you, plastic)…

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MeisterLogi t1_iv0rbpd wrote

>"Plastic is not natural, it is made, this proves that their must have been intelligent life before the Sixth Mass Extinction Event."

>"Plastic is natural! It's absolutely everywhere. And if you don't understand where it comes from, maybe that was just Gods plan. And if life was so intelligent, where are they? They would have noticed the rising carbon levels and taken action. It's absolutely preposterous to say we are not the first intelligence on this planet."

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0b_101010 t1_iv0xgqa wrote

LOL. This would actually be a great prompt for a novel.

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Buddahrific t1_iv1160c wrote

Imo the real problem for the far future is when the plastic-dependent life uses up all the plastic we're leaving without any way to make more. We could be creating not one but two extinction events.

Makes me wonder what kind of evidence of this all will be left in millions of years. If there's anything that eventually digs up our fossils, will they know what caused the current extinction event? Would they be able to figure out a peak plastic extinction?

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