this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Dolphins and orcas have passed the evolutionary point of no return to ever live on land again (www.livescience.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, since mass extinctions are around the corner, I guess there could be a chance! Once we've cooked the earth, maybe the next global apex comes from the ocean.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mass exctincrions aren't "around the corner," they're just a part of life on Earth. They've happened several times before, and they will probably continue to happen. It's not a coming thing--it's the reason mammals rule the Earth right now, and why almost all life uses oxygen.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holocene extinction: currently ongoing. Extinctions have occurred at over 1000 times the background extinction rate since 1900, and the rate is increasing. The mass extinction is a result of human activity, driven by population growth and overconsumption of the earth's natural resources. The 2019 global biodiversity assessment by IPBES asserts that out of an estimated 8 million species, 1 million plant and animal species are currently threatened with extinction. In late 2021, WWF Germany suggested that over a million species could go extinct within a decade in the "largest mass extinction event since the end of the dinosaurs.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event?wprov=sfla1

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think you might have misunderstood me. I'm not arguing that we're not understand one right now. I'm just saying that it happens quite frequently, in geologic time. Definitely not trying to minimize the how harmful of an impact we're having.