Extinction Quotes

“EXTINCTION, n. The raw material out of which theology created the future state.”

“extinction”

“We are currently, in a systematic manner, exterminating all non-human living beings.”

“Wikipedia: Extinction”

“Since after extinction no one will be present to take responsibility, we have to take full responsibility now.”

“Our leaders willfully ignore the wisdom and the models of every other species on the planet—except of course those that have gone extinct.”

“We already have a planet -- Earth! Right here! And it's going to be here for at least another twenty years! Fifteen, if you use a plastic straw!”

“The most wretched of all current trends is of course the mass extinction of organisms, which has been escalating for decades and is still increasing in magnitude.”

“Megafaunal extinctions were just one act in the grand drama of the sixth mass extinction, which has been and will continue to include a plethora of plants and animals.”

“We have since built museums to celebrate the past, and spent decades studying prehistoric lives. And if all this has taught us anything, it is this: no species lasts forever.”

“Moreover, we have unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years, wherein many current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of this century.”

“Compared to the human accomplishment of driving the globe into a sixth mass extinction... elephants are shamefully worthless and lacking a final goal, as are all 10 million species on the planet—including us.”

“[The transition from Australopithecus to Homo] marked the shift from hominins that depend heavily on plants to ones that depend more on meat… Being a good predator is a general feature of our genus.”

“When we look at the extinction of megafaunal animals in isolation, it ignores the chain reaction that led to the loss of tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands, of soil microorganisms and other tiny creatures.”

“We have loads of evidence for rapidly declining ecological health, in virtually every measure. Accelerating biodiversity loss rates are consistent with the initiation of a sixth mass extinction. Modernity has every appearance of being grossly unsustainable.”

“We’ve done [the experiment of living beyond nature’s limits]. Humans didn’t live in harmony with nature. They got close[,] but ultimately couldn’t restrain themselves from causing some extinctions, and then [triggered] many more extinctions when they followed their migratory traits.”

“Having initiated a sixth mass extinction, carried out by access to energy, continued powering of modernity (via electricity, for instance) most likely means compounding ecological harm, piling up accelerating extinctions, under which conditions high-maintenance humans are unlikely to fare well.”

“Since 1970, overall numbers are down by 69%. Livestock and the human beings who farm them now account for 96% of all the mammals on Earth. The Sumatran tiger, the Bornean orangutan and the hellbender salamander are among the million animal and plant species judged perilously close to extinction.”

“What is a ‘mass extinction’ and are we in one now? The Conversation, November 12, 2019.”

“…we are fighting to leave as much biological heritage as we can for nature to do whatever it will do when we fall on our own sword and stop being the worst plague that ever existed—which is sadly what we are, collectively, in spite of the good and beautiful things that humans are also capable of.”