Imagine Earth without people (WIll the environuts please go first?)

From issue 2573 of New Scientist magazine, ^ | 12 October 2006 | Bob Holmes

[.cnI redruM]

The human impact on earthHumans are undoubtedly the most dominant species the Earth has ever known. In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet's land for our cities, farmland and pastures. By some estimates, we now commandeer 40 per cent of all its productivity. And we're leaving quite a mess behind: ploughed-up prairies, razed forests, drained aquifers, nuclear waste, chemical pollution, invasive species, mass extinctions and now the looming spectre of climate change. If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet.

[.cnI redruM]

At least this guy is an entertaining whackjob.

[Hoodlum91]

Can I vote off mosquitos?

[Alouette]

I want to go out and buy an SUV just so I can run him over.

[doc30]

WIll the environuts please go first?

I propose we build 3 Arks, A, B and C to carry the human race into space to save the planet. I propose the Environmentalists go on the first one to leave and that one will be the B Ark.

[BenLurkin]

He'd really hate the ficitonal planet of Coruscant.

[theDentist]

I hope he doesn't procreate.

[Man50D]

If only that meteor had missed Earth millions of years ago.

[CrawDaddyCA]

Maybe Mr. Holmes should lead by example and off himself...for the planet. If we're lucky, the Envirowackjobs will follow his lead.

[digger48]

That's alright....the Democrats will soon enough put 300,000,000 necks on the chopping block

That'll leave the rest of the world with all of those resouces we "squander" providing aid for the rest of the world.

[FreedomProtector]

"He'd really hate the ficitonal planet of Coruscant."


Given his obvious inability for reasonable thought and accurate judgements, he probably wouldn't survive on fictional planet Coruscant long enough to write about it.

[MPJackal]

These wackos think the would would be like Bambi if humans were gone. Thumper and Bambi playing in the woods. It ain't really like that dude. Animals are vicious and cruel. Many kill for sport and they have no compassion. But as Aldous Huxley said:
 
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

[MPJackal]

Oops World

[Polonius]

People like this should be calling for more money to explore and colonize other worlds ... that way, we can reduce the burden on poor planet Earth.

[Tanniker Smith]

Imagine there's no people
I'm really sure you can't.
No towns or cities
A brotherhood of plants.

Imagine all the jungles
With rivers flowing free-eee-hheeee...

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

[CaptRon]

Guys like this are the perfect example of people spouting cynical crap and passing it off as deep thinking.

Like leftists, for example.

[Lauren BaRecall]

In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet's land for our cities, farmland and pastures.

Excuuuuuuuuuuse me. That's what it's there for!

If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet.

I wonder how aborted babies would vote?

[MadIvan]

If he thinks Earth would be better off without people, he could always shoot himself.

If he believes his existence is so bad for the world, then he should have the courage of his convictions and die.

Regards, Ivan

[LexBaird]

Deep Thoughts Guy strikes again. "Imagine if there was nobody around so that there would be no one to imagine that there were people around, so, who would know?"

[TMD]

Perhaps he should joing the "Voluntary Human Extinction Movement" www.vhemt.org
Their motto is -
"May we live long and die out"

---

Here's their mission statement (I kid you not....)

Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense.

[TMD]

joing = join DOH!!

[YdontUleaveLibs]

Imagine no liberals.

The first envirnmentalists were conservatives this is just another area the liberal hijacked from conservatives.

[wordsofearnest]

I would like to see Mrs. Dr. Brightlinger naked though.

[Lauren BaRecall]

Though modern buildings are typically engineered to last 60 years, bridges 120 years and dams 250, these lifespans assume someone will keep them clean, fix minor leaks and correct problems with foundations. Without people to do these seemingly minor chores, things go downhill quickly.

If there were no people, who would clean the cat box? >^..^<

[Lauren BaRecall]

But would the footprint of humanity ever fade away completely, or have we so altered the Earth that even a million years from now a visitor would know that an industrial society once ruled the planet?

If a building fell in the city, and there were no space visitors around, would it make a sound?

[Sterm26]

We just have to make sure that we keep a few phone sanitizers around. (inside joke).

[Maceman]

If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet.

If I could, I would surely vote Bob Holmes off the planet.

Except that I think he already has moved to Bizarro World.

[reagan_fanatic]

And we're leaving quite a mess behind: ploughed-up prairies
Which will, in time, revert back to nature

razed forests
See answer above

drained aquifers
Which will refill on their own in time

nuclear waste
When properly stored and cared for present little if any risk

chemical pollution
Wouldn't be fair unless we also throw in volcanic eruptions and other ways nature dirties up the atmosphere, now would it?

invasive species
Are we including naturally invasive species such as locusts as well?

mass extinctions
Are we also including species that nature eliminates on its own because they fail to adapt?

and now the looming spectre of climate change
Which is due mainly to cyclical changes in the sun.


Junk science is a cancer. There's one you can blame on Man.

[.cnI redruM]

Yes, the world would return to a blissful state of bucolic nature if we could only stop giving jerk-offs like this author tenure.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.' "
The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature", but beavers and their dams are.
But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity.
In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the "Naturist" reveals his hatred for his own race, i.e. his own self-hatred.
In the case,of "Naturists" such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot.
But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have.
Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women, it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly "natural."

Lazarus Long

[.cnI redruM]

You could make it a hybrid SUV and do it for the planet.

[.cnI redruM]

He'd fit right in on Land of The Lost.

[OESY]

A Eureka moment: This explains the embrace of Communism by so many liberals. It was a way to remove (permanently) 100 million people (and their countless millions of progeny) that would have consumed the earth's resources. How high minded these libs are!

[.cnI redruM]

Vote Joe Stalin; for the planet.

[Alouette]

Actually I am looking at the Ford Escape and like it very much, but the hybrid model costs almost $10,000 more than the conventional.

[GOP_1900AD]

Imagine Earth dominated by evil people - the descendents of those we now fight or will soon be fighting.

[mdmathis6]

"improve as we become less dense."

There is a joke hidden in that statement...hee hee!

I think he should have said "as our population density decreases"

[Diamond]

That is hillarious!

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no people too
Imagine there are no people
Living life at all...

No people to imagine no possesions
No one left who can
No need for greed or hunger
because there is no man
Imagine all the people
gone from all the world...oooh oohh!

You may say I was a lunatic
But i wasn't the only one
I hoped some day you'd join us
even though there would be no us then.

Cordially,