Frazz by Jef Mallett for January 19, 2023

Ask someone, “Would they rather almost die or almost survive?”

If they answer too quickly, they may make the choice they didn’t mean to make. [If you almost die then you don’t die – you survive/live. But if you almost survive, you die (you don’t survive).]

Amen, sister.

31 new species discovered in 2022. https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/new-species-discovered-this-year/

experts calculate that between 0.01 and 0.1% of all species will become extinct each year. If the low estimate of the number of species out there is true – i.e. that there are around 2 million different species on our planet** – then that means between 200 and 2,000 extinctions occur every year.

We are the asteroid.

Mantees are starving due to the fact they only eat one grass and it is dying. They are trying to grow more and feeding them lettuce or cabbage as a substitute. But the red tides don’t help either from fertilizer runoffs. Humans are great at killing things and each other.

That line is extirpated

In the end, we are only hurting ourselves.

I agree with the child, but also see the implications of her equation. For every action there is a reaction, however tiny and unnoticed. One can neither prevent it nor control it. Current life is the product of eons of such events. It will continue unabated. Species will be born and become extinct, however much we would wish otherwise.

Question here is, will this child – or her living counterpart – become one of those who will try to slow the extinctions or one the complainers?

scientists have concluded that 99% of the species that have ever existed have gone extinct, can’t blame it all on man!

Lol

In Earth’s history, there have been 5 previous massive die-offs of almost every species on the planet. We call these Mass Extinction Events (MEEs). We don’t know for sure what caused the 1st 4, but the 5th — the one that got the dinosaurs — was very probably due to a huge meteor striking the Earth near the Yucatan Peninsula. And we’re absolutely certain what’s responsible for the 6th, the one we’re in now, the Holocene Holocaust. It’s us.

I’m more concerned about the number of specimens.