Fiddle-dee-dee!
Title: “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History”
Author: Elizabeth Kolbert
Rank: 6
Blurb: “Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.”
Review: “Humans pushing other species off the brink is nothing new.”
Customers Also Bought: “Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World”
Footnote: Meanwhile, as Pareene observes, Meet the Press this morning features a “debate” over climate change between “a professional children’s entertainer and a Republican member of Congress.” The world is Rome, and we are all Nero.
The Sixth Extinction [Amazon]
Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]
Bill Nye’s no dummy, but a Golden Retriever would out-debate Marsha Blackburn.
Some say Nye gives these idiots credibility. Some say it’s OK to debate them. Ultimately it’s all fruitless, because either they believe the lies or they’re paid to believe the lies.
@blogenfreude:
Idiots like David Gregory give the fools even more credibility by treating them not as paid whores or whackjobs but as “serious”.
I think Nye’s shoveling shit against the tide, but I’ll still cheer him on.
@ManchuCandidate: This. “Journalists” (or rather, media whores) have confused objectivity with giving clearly specious and ridiculous claims equal standing with scientifically verifiable facts.
Spoiler alert: we’re fucked.
Have ya ever tried to explain where all the people came from (the theory of evolution) to a five year-old? Far easier to just say that Ceiling Kitty did it.
@Mistress Cynica: I can’t confirm when Bill McKibben originally published “The Tipping Point” in the New Yorker — late 90s? — but I recall that he set a date of 2013-ish for when we’d pass the point of no return on climate change.
And here we are.
Kids born today are going to have an interesting life.
@nojo:
And those kids (that survive) will rightfully hate us with every fiber of their being.
BURR DEMING • Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025 Thank you for this, nojo. He was a wonderful talent and, by all accounts, a wonderful human…
NOJO • Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025 Oh, and there’s a Catholic church across the street. Maybe I can do a little dance for them!
NOJO • Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025 Now that I’m in NYC, plenty of pigeons to poison in his honor.
NOJO • All the Vice President's Men 2025 update: Nothing happened. And here we are!
MANCHUCANDIDATE • Weeping Angel Imagine going from hope to Fascism in less than two decades enabled by greedy ass (millionaire)…
NOJO • Nightmare at the Museum From the last time he threatened to bomb Iran, 2020. Remember that one? All a misty blur now.
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @ManchuCandidate: I have birthright citizenship in Cascadia, so I think I’m good.
MANCHUCANDIDATE • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @nojo: Only the sane parts... like the West coast, New England (minus the Bruins and…
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @ManchuCandidate: So, can you guys annex us now?
MANCHUCANDIDATE • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! PP is done. 51st state, my ass.