Many are concerned about the loss and extinction of many animal species, but very rarely (if never) are humans species part of the debate.

Nicole Kidman once said that "that people should live to eork, not work to live."

A number of people are taking various views on the loss of humans on this planet:

1. Big business "working people to death" for profit.

2. Climate change impacting on human health. "The Earth is warming so rapidly that unless humans can arrest the trend, we risk becoming "extinct" as a species, a leading Australian health academic has warned.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-change-could-make-humans-extinct-warns-health-expert-20140330-35rus.html

3. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, who see protection of other living species important - not just humans. Many will potentially find this "movement" very strange, if not funny.

http://www.vhemt.org/aboutvhemt.htm#serious

What do people think? Could humans disappear off the face of this planet?

read the book if you really want to know Nathan.I suggest you read Peters secnd epistle. The gw faith (previously the Greenhouse and cooling doctrine guys) have no idea. They make it up and use pseudo science to back their fantasies. Ask Flannery, Gore and the IPCC, they has been exposed numerous times. Then again our intelligent evolutionist tell us that we are evolving into higher forms. How gullible can people be.

"A number of people are taking various views on the loss of humans on this planet:"

What loss of humans are you referring too? There are 7 billion and the number is growing exponentially.

"Could humans disappear off the face of this planet?" I doubt it, but I do believe halving the number word be a good start.

Don't worry about climate change; the population is increasing much faster that the oceans are warming or rising

It's a certainty: it may happen sooner or it may happen later, but eventually humans will be extinct.

Our bodies are but instrumental for our spirit.
Hopefully we won't need them much longer, but in the unfortunate case that human bodies are no longer available before completing our spiritual journey, then some different bodies in some different galaxy or even some different universe will become available to enable us to complete our journey back to God.

Will the human species become extinct?

Yes.

Dear Nathan,

In the modern industrialised world,
we often feel insulated from nature
and confident that our technology can give us
mastery over the natural environment.

We forget all too easily that we too are animals, ultimately
dependent on the environment for our survival as any other
species.

In industrialised societies many people see nature primarily
as a resource for exploitation. As our "needs" increase,
our capacity for exploitation expands. Many don't see the
ravaging of our environment as "ravaging" at all; it is
"progress" or "development." We're so used to exploiting
our natural resources and dumping our waste products into
the environment that we frequently forget that resources are
limited and exhaustible and that pollution can disrupt the
ecological balance on which our survival depends.

All over the world, and especially in the less developed
societies, the pressure of the human population and its
technologies is devastating natural ecosystems.

This pressure takes many forms - urbanisation and highway
construction, transformation of virgin land into farmland,
chemical pollution of fresh water, dredging and landfill in
coastal areas, uncontrolled hunting and poaching, especially
African wildlife, deliberate and accidental poisoning of
wildlife with pesticides, disruption of natural predator-prey
relationships, strangulation of millions of birds and fish
with discarded Styrofoam pellets, plastic bags, and other
synthetic flotsam, dam construction and irrigation,
and massive deforestation.

Most people realise that the planet has a finite amount of
resources or that it can tolerate only a limited amount of
pollution.

However,
if world population continues to grow rapidly, if
industrialisation spreads around the world, I would say that
to your question - will the human species become extinct?
The most optimistic answer would be that one way or another -
sweeping social changes await us.

There are some who say humans are the cancer cells spreading around the Earth. If that's the case we have a dilemma, do we support our own species or our planet? Personally, I would support the planet.

//Will the human species become extinct?//

Of course. The question is when and how, not if.

I've posted this before, but it's pertinent to this thread.

The following are from the opening lines of Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival":

"A few years ago, one of the great figures of contemporary biology, Ernst Mayr, published some reflections on the likelihood of success in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.He considered the prospect very low. His reasoning had to do with the adaptive value of what we call "higher intelligence", meaning the particular human form of higher intellectual organisation. Mayr estimated the number of species since the origin of life at about fifty billion, only one of which "achieved the kind of intelligence to establish a civilisation." It did so very recently, perhaps 100,000 years ago.....Mayr speculated that the human form of intellectual organisation may not be favoured by selection. The history of life on earth, he wrote, refutes the claim that "it is better to be smart than to be stupid," at least judging by biological success: beetles and bacteria, for example, are vastly more successful than humans in terms of survival. He also made the rather somber observation that "the average life expectancy of a species is about 100,000 years."
We are entering a period of human history that may provide an answer to the question of whether it is better to be smart than stupid. The most hopeful prospect is that the question will "not" be answered: if it receives a definite answer, that answer can only be that humans were a kind of "biological error," using their allotted 100,000 years to destroy themselves and, in the process, much else.
The species has surely developed the capacity to do just that, and a hypothetical extraterrestrial observer might well conclude that humans have demonstrated that capacity throughout their history, dramatically in the past few hundred years, with an assault on the environment that sustains life, on the diversity of more complex organisms, and with a cold and calculated savagery, on each other as well."

Have you guys been into the catnip again? You all sound like Pennti Linkola at his most crotchetty.

//Have you guys been into the catnip again?//

Oh, OK then... homo sapiens is the only immortal species in the known universe. But I'm still unclear about the mechanism. Or even if we are truly immortal as a species, because my crystal ball is on the fritz again. Could you shed some light on this matter, Jay?

How do we survive heat death?

Oh God.

Toni Lavis, global warming is bullshyt. Tony said so, as do any people with any savvy, not on the gravy train. This is a great pity. It is so damn cold here tonight, I wish we could turn the heat up a bit.

Of course we will become extinct, but it will be the coming ice age, or an asteroid strike, whichever comes first, that does us in, & certainly not a colourless odourless plant food.

Whatever happens it is a certainty that it will happen to us, not because of anything we do. I find it amusing that people grant us such power & importance.

The only way we could survive would be to get a few billion of us inhabiting a couple of dozen other planets, in more than one galaxy. I find it hard to imagine that is possible, but then the first man who hollowed out a log to build a canoe, could not have imagined modern ships or aircraft. The future may show us to be almost as primitive at he was.

One thing is for sure, it is of no importance to anyone on earth to day.

//Of course we will become extinct//

A fair point and well made. No need for the sermon, old man, but amen anyway.

I think nearly everybody understands that human life on earth is ultimately doomed due to natural causes, Ultimately our only hope would be to colonize other planets.

The critical question is will humans cause their own extinction, well we are certainly capable doing so. The most obvious problem is nuclear weapons of which there are at least 15,695 warheads. It is unlikely that humans would survive a major nuclear war. Even without starting a nuclear war chemical and biological war fare have the potential to wipe out huge numbers of people and other creatures possibly making humans extinct.

http://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report

Human induced climate change is a very serious problem and has the potential to cause human extinction should we continue to refuse to do anything substantial about it. The good news on that front is that 2014 was the first year that CO2 emissions did not increase but yet global economic growth increased by 3%. previously growth has always been tied to increases in CO2 emissions.

http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2015/03/16/4198541.htm

It would would seem that the worst case scenario as a result of human induced emissions of greenhouse gases is that global temperatures could increase by over 10 Deg C. This would be disastrous leading eventually to the loss of all Greenland and Antarctic ice and raising sea level by some 220 feet. This would have such a dramatic effect on climate and coastline that nearly everybody would have to move and war would become almost inevitable. Even today we have wars in the northern Africa which are exacerbated by climate change and encroaching desert.

Other problems include chemical pollution so severe that it damages the planets life support systems, for example if the use of fluorocarbons had not been radically reduced, eventually it would have destroyed the ozone layer and made most plant life impossible, and thus the extinction of humans.

http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues/archive-2012-2013/ozone-layer-our-global-sunscreen.html

We are more likely to die from stupidity after reading the warmist propaganda. Surely no one believes that rot.

It won't be climate change that will cause the demise of the human race, but rather the madly populating countries who are causing our world to be over crowded.

The rapidly growing secularism in the developed countries have allowed them to move on from the ancient religious call against contraception and abortion rights.

We need to assist the many poorer countries to access the same knowledge and rights in order to slow down their rapid population growth.

Runner
Yes people are very likely to die of stupidity, if they refuse to take action to solve a problem that is well understood and we know how to solve.

Suseonline
Overpopulation if not solved by us will be solved by nature, either by starvation or by an acute epidemic. I don't think it is likely to cause the extinction of humans or even the collapse of civilization.

Have you looked at robotics and artificial intelligence lately? The "Terminator" themed movies may be closer to reality than any other reasons so far raised on this forum.

We don't need any robotics to kill us off sonofgloin, warmair & his idiotic mates will do us in quicker than that.

Nature is about survival of the fittest. Once upon a time that was us with our large brains. That of course was before so many of those large brains became so addled they are working backwards. With these clowns everything is more important than us.

We have according to the TV news we have "authorities" who ever the hell they are, telling us we should not kill the currently marauding great white. Telling us we should still protect sharks that are attacking regularly, crocodiles that regularly kill people, & snakes that kill us, our pets & stock, & we are not supposed to shoot wild dogs after our young stock is far from intelligent.

With increasingly more of this garbage becoming law, we are bound to die out, which is what the ratbag greens are after. If we continue to allow this stupidity

The solar system will die.
The universe will end.
So, of course, we will disappear too.

Whether that happens within a short time frame and by our own actions is the question.
I doubt either would be the case.

Humans have survived every type of natural and man-made disaster, can live in almost any environment, and have the intelligence to invent whatever we need to further our own needs.

But...
Certain *types* of humans are certainly going to be extinct if current political ideologies/policies continue.

Ironically and hypocritically, it is often the same people so concerned about saving this frog or that tree that are creating this human-type extinction.
All in the name of "diversity".

They may believe in tolerance and equality, but alleles do not.
Alleles believe in dominance.

You cannot have green *and* brown *and* grey *and* blue eyes.
You can only have one.

You can only pass on the alleles you inherit.
They can't be "invented" like technologies, or revived once lost.

There will always be humans in the foreseeable future.

But they will *all* have black hair.
They will *all* have brown-black skin.
They will *all* have brown eyes.

"Equality" at last.
But no "diversity".

But this uniformity may speed up our extinction.
A common type requires a genetically favourable climate and diet.

Any disaster that threatens those common natural requirements makes our whole species, not just part of it, vulnerable.

Dangers like viral mutations would also spread more easily to more people.

Genetic uniformity may create "equality" but not safety.

There will always be humans in the foreseeable future....

In terms of what? Paintings? Photographs? Plastic shop mannequins?

Humans have survived every type of natural and man-made disaster.....

In terms of what? Boat people? Asylum seekers? Settlers who came to Australia - where many boats didn't make it here and people drowned, people dying due to the actions of Adolf Hitler, world wide terrorism?

And yes it's very easy to blame the frog or that tree out there... they are the easy target and people who may advocate on their behalf are virtually attacked by economists, business or extreme left wing socialists who only think only about themselves.

Many people also think humans "own" the land in terms of Australia, yet we didn't create it, including the planet. Why?

Easy answer. Too many humans at present have become over commercialised and always wanting more.... More of everything. Particularly in well off countries, like Australia.

Humans need to stand back, have a good at themselves and realise as a "species" at present we will become extinct in some areas (and this could actually be a good thing), but I don't see political parties or politicians in Australia wanting it, along with the majority of people. P.S forget any real social policy change that is virtually untouchable.

'Humans have survived every type of natural and man-made disaster...' Thankfully the only way they survived a supernatural diaster was building an ark.

TL: How do we survive heat death?

We don’t, but it’ll be a while yet. As the Sun dies it expands & will likely over take Earth in about 10 Billion years. It will be too hot for any life in about 4 Billion years. So there is no escaping the heat. If humans last that long. By any way of reckoning, species only last about 4 million years anyway. We’ve been here two, so we’ve got two million left as a present species type.

Runner: Thankfully the only way they survived a supernatural diaster was building an ark.

Going by the size of the Ark, it wouldn’t hold all the animals at Tooronga Zoo.

Will humans survive?

Depends. IIf we let the moslems take over & rule. Humans & Humanity will be dead in 100 years.

Yes , with earth that treated by the human species cruelly , disastrous is coming near to hit all species on earth , no doubt all get extinct !