Posted on 11/29/2018 6:18:06 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
The complex network of interdependencies between plants and animals multiplies the species at risk of extinction due to environmental change, according to a new study.
Scientist Giovanni Strona, in collaboration with Professor Corey Bradshaw constructed 2000 "Virtual Earths," which they populated with thousands of plants and animals organized into a global system of inter-connected food-webs.
They then subjected the virtual Earths to extreme trajectories of environmental change, consisting in either a "global warming," i.e. a linear, monotonic increase in temperature, or a "nuclear winter," i.e. a progressive cooling, such as that which could follow multiple nuclear detonations or an asteroid impact.
According to the simulations, 5-6°C of warming would be enough to wipe out most life on the virtual Earths the scientists created.
Giovanni recognises that "there are obvious limitations in our ambitious model, due to the multiple challenges of building realistic global ecological systems.
On the one hand, our results are consistent with real-world patterns for which we have empirical evidence.
This make us confident that the many assumptions we had to take in order to build a functional model are sound. On the other hand, however, it would be misleading to just focus on raw numbers."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
If only Paul Ehrlich had been right and millions of us had died in the seventies we wouldn’t have to worry! Nah, I put this in the same class as Ehrlich’s Population Bomb, bullshit designed to scare the many gullible while making the few fear mongers wealthy..............in other words, BULLSHIT!
Paul Ehrlich academic expertise is butterfly population dynamics!
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