"The evidence for Homo sapiens playing the dominant role in the global megafauna extinctions constitutes one of the clearest, most well-supported patterns in ecology." - @jcsvenning.bsky.social - ThreadSky

irishrainforest.bsky.social • 8 days ago

"The evidence for Homo sapiens playing the dominant role in the global megafauna extinctions constitutes one of the clearest, most well-supported patterns in ecology."

- @jcsvenning.bsky.social

Reposted from Annie Leymarie

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wildwoods.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yet we no longer live in the Quarternary, the climate is nothing like it was 10,000 yrs ago and the megafauna are not coming back. What I've noticed is the ones that most promote this issue are those that have an animal husbandry agenda.

irishrainforest.bsky.social•7 days ago

Evan, the exact same arguments could be (and are) made against pretty much *any* discussion of how we make ecosystems more functional.

Ecosystems evolved over 100s of millions of years, and pretending only recent human damage is relevant makes zero sense.

wildwoods.bsky.social•7 days ago

It depends how we identify goals/priorities & what you call 'recent'. Do we focus on recovering basic ecosystem attributes like complexity, diversity, known key functions that reflect current realities,or extinct megafauna from distant past that have zero likelihood of return? The answer is obvious.

irishrainforest.bsky.social•7 days ago

If (eg) wolves had been driven to global extinction by humans in the early Holocene, would we just ignore the vital ecological functions they served, as if that were irrelevant, or didn't fit "current realities"? No.

Why is straight-tusked elephant, here into the late Pleistocene, any different?

sustainablefarming.bsky.social•7 days ago

And most importantly - our entire agricultural system relies on intact ecosystems.

Bees and plant lice might seem extremely small and bison might seem very large - but they’re all connected through sophisticated ecosystems.

sustainablefarming.bsky.social•7 days ago

We don’t know how much of an impact on ecosystem collapse the extinction of some larger mammals 10-20 thousand years ago have on us today, but we do know that it would be incredibly brave to insist farming can continue even if all organisms other than our farm plants and animals die out.

wildwoods.bsky.social•7 days ago

Understanding the function of straight-tusked elephants in past epochs is fine, but they're extinct. Community assemblages change, and there's no way to recreate those from distant past. Nor should we try to -- it's a red herring & misses the real opportunities that exist and are achievable today.

irishrainforest.bsky.social•7 days ago

You're missing the point, and I suggest we return to my wolves analogy.

Would we ignore the crucial role of wolves? Or would we a) Try to understand how their artificial absence was leaving ecosystems totally unbalanced, and b) How we might possibly fill that gap with the means available to us?

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