Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Extinction claim: Humans, not climate change, at fault for most extinctions …

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

That’s weird. Especially when you consider that climate change is supposed to be at fault even for marital cheating.

But here’s the story:

Is it humankind or climate change that caused the extinction of a considerable number of large mammals about the time of the last Ice Age? Researchers at Aarhus University have carried out the first global analysis of the extinction of the large animals, and the conclusion is clear — humans are to blame. A new study unequivocally points to humans as the cause of the mass extinction of large animals all over the world during the course of the last 100,000 years.

“Our results strongly underline the fact that human expansion throughout the world has meant an enormous loss of large animals,” says Postdoctoral Fellow Søren Faurby, Aarhus University.

Or gain, if you count humans. 😉

The results show that the correlation between climate change — i.e. the variation in temperature and precipitation between glacials and interglacials — and the loss of megafauna is weak, and can only be seen in one sub-region, namely Eurasia (Europe and Asia). “The significant loss of megafauna all over the world can therefore not be explained by climate change, even though it has definitely played a role as a driving force in changing the distribution of some species of animals. Reindeer and polar foxes were found in Central Europe during the Ice Age, for example, but they withdrew northwards as the climate became warmer,” says Postdoctoral Fellow Christopher Sandom, Aarhus University. More.

It would be nice if we knew how to get rid of rats instead.

Follow UD News at Twitter!

Comments
“Our results strongly underline the fact that human expansion throughout the world has meant an enormous loss of large animals,” says Postdoctoral Fellow Søren Faurby, Aarhus University.
I'm with Old Army here! Why is this a problem? It is presented as if humans are the bad guys or something. All we are seeing here is evolution! How can evolution do anything good or bad? Isn't the goal of evolution to reproduce and out compete your competitors? So from an evolutionary perspective, it looks to me like we've done a pretty good job at that. And besides, do we have a choice in the matter? We are the way evolution has made us. Can we really help ourselves?tjguy
June 5, 2014
June
06
Jun
5
05
2014
04:38 PM
4
04
38
PM
PDT
Yeah, and why should the devout materialist even care? Man is just as much an animal as any other creature. Would we castigate the lion, wolf, shark or any other apex predator? No, but the self-loathing for homo sapiens is sure interesting, especially given the premise upon which many of these folks rest.OldArmy94
June 4, 2014
June
06
Jun
4
04
2014
01:00 PM
1
01
00
PM
PDT
The researchers' geographical analysis thereby points very strongly at humans as the cause of the loss of most of the large animals.
The Bible says pretty much the same thing in that the increasing wickedness of man caused God to bring on the flood.awstar
June 4, 2014
June
06
Jun
4
04
2014
12:45 PM
12
12
45
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply