Is global warming good?
1 Answer
For most organisms, the answer would be ...NO.
Explanation:
There have been a number of natural global warming events in the geological past and one lesson learned is that this almost always results in a mass species extinction event. However, after the existing population is wiped out by a warming period, a new generation of species more adapted to the new environmental conditions usually arises after a few million years.
For example, a giant volcanic eruption 250 million years ago killed most life on Earth by setting off a big warming event. However, it did pave the way for reptiles (and later dinosaurs) and our own mammal ancestors to get going after the extinction event. So we won - millions of species lost.
The current human-induced warming will probably follow a similar pattern of past mass species extinction events. This latest extinction event already seems to be underway. This is bring brought on by human-induced global warming (by burning fossil fuels and burning forests), but also by humans destroying habitat (e.g. cutting forests) , overfishing/overhunting species for sport, and food, and a number of other reasons.
Some scientists argue that humans may survive the present unfolding global warming event because we have ability to invent smart technology to help save us. Others are not so sure, as if the entire ecosystem collapses (that were are interdependent on) no amount of tech may save us. Perhaps the new species to survive will be artificial intelligence/robots that we build!
