This crab could save your life – if humans don't wipe it out first | Hacker News Reader

This crab could save your life – if humans don't wipe it out first

theguardian.com

22 pointsNeedMoreTea7 comments

I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be better for the test of the world if humans became extinct. Our impact is limited mostly to earth now, but if we make it into space we'll just go and ruin other planets. It's already very very difficult to get everyone to agree and work together to spare ecosystems and species on our own rock so imagine how little traction there would be to not destroy some distant planet none of us call home. Humans are short sighted like every other animal, but we have much more destructive capabilities. This can't end well.

The big difference is that all planets we’ve discovered so far are lifeless.

You can’t really ruin a barren planet. There’s no one to ruin it for.

Sort of, yeah. The natural cycle of the earth wouldn't be impeded by our meddling. Though in the event of an extinction level event the life at the time might be worse off since we are the only animal smart enough to be able to possibly avert whatever said disaster might be. However even in that event the system would likely rebound just like it always has, there would just be new life to fill the gap.

new life will emerge after humans die and earth (the planet) will still exist

Yeah I feel like this point needs to be more upfront in the climate change debate.

Working to prevent climate change is an inherently selfish endeavor and humanity is generally pretty open to hopping on the selfishness bandwagon.

Even for someone who adheres to libertarian ideals the need for regulations specific to environmental concerns should be reasonable since it directly effects every living human being including them in a negative way that will directly inhibit their ability to go about their lives.

Radiolab had a great episode on this

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/baby-blue-blood-drive

We have these in NJ. Really cool little creatures. They swim upside-down!

I'm glad to learn we don't have to kill them to harvest the blood. Like with all things we'll probably not use an alternative until we absolutely have to. That is always unfortunate.

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