Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button? LiveScience.com jeremy Hsu livescience Senior Writer livescience.com – ThuSep2, 2:30pmET Mass extinctions have served as huge reset buttons that dramatically changed the diversity of species found in oceans all over the world, according to a comprehensive study of fossil records. The findings suggest humans will live in a very different future if they drive animals to extinction, because the loss of each species can alter entire ecosystems. Some scientists have speculated that effects of humans - from hunting to climate change - are fueling another great mass extinction. A few go so far as to say we are entering a new geologic epoch, leaving the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch behind and entering the Anthropocene Epoch , marked by major changes to global temperatures and ocean chemistry, increased sediment erosion, and changes in biology that range from altered flowering times to shifts in migration patterns of birds and mammals and potential die-offs of tiny organisms that support the entire marine food chain. Scientists had once thought species diversity could help buffer a group of animals from such die-offs, either keeping them from heading toward extinction or helping them to bounce back. But having many diverse species also proved no guarantee of future success for any one group of animals, given that mass extinctions more or less wiped the slate clean, according to studies such as the latest one. Then and now Looking back in time, the diversity of large taxonomic groups (which include lots of species), such as snails or corals, mostly hovered around a certain equilibrium point that represented a diversity limit of species' numbers. But that diversity limit also appears to have changed spontaneously throughout Earth's history about every 200 million years. How today's extinction crisis - species today go extinct at a rate that may range from 10 to 100 times the so-called background extinction rate - may change the face of the planet and its species goes beyond what humans can predict, the researchers say. "The main implication is that we're really rolling the dice," said John Alroy, a paleobiologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. "We don't know which groups will suffer the most, which groups will rebound the most quickly, or which ones will end up with higher or lower long-term equilibrium diversity levels." What seems certain is that the fate of each animal group will differ greatly, Alroy said. His analysis, detailed in the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Science, is based on almost 100,000 fossil collections in the Paleobiology Database (PaleoDB). The findings revealed various examples of diversity shifts, including one that took place in a group of ocean bottom-dwelling bivalves called brachiopods, which are similar to clams and oysters. They dominated the Paleozoic era from 540 million to 250 million years ago, and branched out into new species during two huge adaptive spurts of growth in diversity - each time followed by a big crash. The brachiopods then reached a low, but steady, equilibrium over the past 250 million years in which there wasn't a surge or a crash in species' numbers, and still live on today as a rare group of marine animals. Counting creatures better In the past, researchers have typically counted species in the fossil record by randomly drawing a set number of samples from each time period - a method that can leave out less common species. In fact two studies using the PaleoDB used this approach. Instead, Alroy used a new approach called shareholder sampling, in which he tracked how frequently certain groups appeared in the fossil record, and then counted enough samples until he hit a target number representative of the proportion for each group. "In some sense the older methods are a little like the American voting system - the first-past-the-post-winner method basically makes minority views invisible," said Charles Marshall, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who did not take part in the study. "However, with proportional systems, minority views still get seats in parliament." Marshall added that the study was the "most thorough quantitative analysis to date using global marine data ." But he added that researchers will probably debate whether the PaleoDB data represents a complete-enough picture of the fossil record. Nothing lasts forever The idea that rules of diversity change should not come as a surprise for most researchers, according to Marshall. "To me, the really interesting possibility is that some groups might not yet be close enough to their caps to have those caps be manifest yet," Marshall told LiveScience. Or "evolutionary innovation" might happen so quickly that new groups emerged to increase overall diversity, even if each sub-group reached a cap on diversity. If anything, the record of past extinctions has shown the difficulty of predicting which groups win out in the long run. "Surviving is one thing and recovering is another," said Marshall, who wrote a Perspectives piece about the study in the same issue of Science. One of the few consistent patterns is that growth spurts in diversity can apparently happen at any time, according to Alroy. He added that the background extinction of individual species has also remained consistent - the average species lasts just a few million years Of course, the ongoing extinction crisis of modern times goes far beyond the background extinction rate. Alroy noted that it could not only wipe out entire branches of evolutionary history, but may also change the ecosystems shaped by each species. That means today's species matter for environments around the world, and so humans can't simply expect replacements from the diverse species of the future. "If we lose all the reef builders, we may not get back the physical reefs for millions of years no matter how fast we get back all the species diversity in a simple sense," Alroy said.
Muslim-Americans launch PR initiatives, promote Sept. 11 as day of national service By Liz Goodwin liz Goodwin – WedSep1, 11:13amET In an effort to push back against negative views of Islam and Muslims, grassroots Muslim groups are launching a series of initiatives to convey to non-Muslim-Americans that they are also Americans. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a series of advertisements today that will run on national television, clearly intended to counter some of the furor over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. In one spot, a New York firefighter who was a first responder after the Sept. 11 attacks talks about losing a loved one before announcing that he is a Muslim. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the point of the ad is to "challenge the notion that Muslims were not also targeted on 9/11." A national CBS poll from last month showed that 40 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of Islam . More than 70 percent of respondents said building a mosque near Ground Zero was not appropriate. And only 62 percent of Americans think Muslims should have the same right as other groups to build places of worship in their communities, a Pew Research poll found . You can watch the CAIR "first responder" ad after the jump: 9/11 Happened to Us All @ Yahoo! Video Meanwhile, Edina Lekovic, director of policy at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, is helping to organize a grassroots Muslim Day of Service planned for Sept. 11. The group coordinated more than 3,500 service projects in the past year as part of President Obama's National Day of Service initiative, but Lekovic says the push is especially important now. "Given the climate in the country right now and the ... intense levels of attacks that many Muslims are feeling, this effort is meant to channel those emotions toward something that is good both for our faith and our country," Lekovic said. Rather than just be "outraged" over incidents like the group planning to burn Korans in Gainesville, Florida on Sept. 11, Lekovic told The Upshot the day of service is an opportunity to "show who we are rather than just talk about who we are." A separate grassroots initiative called "My Faith My Voice" also launched an advertisment this week featuring Muslim-Americans saying they renounce terrorism and do not want to take over the country or impose their faith on anyone. "These are sincere efforts by everyday American Muslims to demonstrate who we are and that we are in every possible way just like every other American, and the kinds of awful and dangerous attacks that are happening now are fundamentally un-American," Lekovic said. "We're actually quite boring!" Anti-Islamic sentiments are spreading well beyond the battle over the proposed Park51 community center near Ground Zero. At least two mosques far from New York have received hate-filled messages opposing the proposed mosque in Lower Manhattan, and a fire at a mosque construction site in Tennessee is now being investigated as arson.
The Meditations By Marcus Aurelius Written 167 A.C.E. Translated by George Long One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.- Must a man then be one of these, who in a manner act thus without observing it?- Yes.- But this very thing is necessary, the observation of what a man is doing: for, it may be said, it is characteristic of the social animal to perceive that he is working in a social manner, and indeed to wish that his social partner also should perceive it.- It is true what thou sayest, but thou dost not rightly understand what is now said: and for this reason thou wilt become one of those of whom I spoke before, for even they are misled by a certain show of reason. But if thou wilt choose to understand the meaning of what is said, do not fear that for this reason thou wilt omit any social act. As a child, we all do good things to recieve praise for a job well done. As adults, many still see doing good, for the same reason. And then there are those who just enjoy that feeling that doing good brings to their inner self. Some, just don't know they are doing good, and improve the world along the way...... We forget we are social animals. We tend to think in identities of self, as oppossed to the human race. Other members of the animal kingdom work in harrmony for mutual benefit, yet man seems to forget this as a whole. Carnivores work together for food and rearing of the babies. Herbivores band together for protection from the carnivores as well as help with the young. Yet, man forgets we are animal. Instead, thinking we are above those simple ideas. The line,"...and indeed to wish that his social partner also should preceive it....", shows a very human characteristic. The animals do not do their duties, expecting thanks from their flocks and broods. Toward the end of this translation, it is alluded to by the author, that in his opinion of Marcus Aurelius thought of the human race "we are the bodies of mammels, with the intelligence of gods" This section from Marcus Arrelius' Meditations is one of my favorites. The whole series was written in a manner to remind himself that he was a man, uncle,son, student,as well as the ruler of Rome.
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