drvr

Although the good and bad of immigration and its optimal
levels are debated among economist and socialogists with
a mix picture, a clear majority of biologists think life will
face mass extinction. Since this article was published, I have
spoken to biologist colleagues who say they have even
"more converts" now.

While the end immigration couple Fred and Oliver cry about burdens on "tax payers" (their own wallets) and
make up grand silly little stories about how their
imaginary sky is surely falling on them and America by
mexicans and others, the real bule sky might be
falling. Defendin your wallets is instictive and
primitive, understanding abstract processes is not.


Mass Extinction Underway, Majority of Biologists Say

4/21/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Mass Extinction Underway, Majority of Biologists Say
Source: The Washington Post
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 4/21/98
Byline: Joby Warrick, Staff Writer

A majority of the nation's biologists are convinced that a "mass extinction" of
plants and animals is underway that poses a major threat to humans in the next
century, yet most Americans are only dimly aware of the problem, a poll says.

The rapid disappearance of species was ranked as one of the planet's gravest
environmental worries, surpassing pollution, global warming and the thinning of
the ozone layer, according to the survey of 400 scientists commissioned by New
York's American Museum of Natural History.

The poll's release yesterday comes on the heels of a groundbreaking study of
plant diversity that concluded than at least one in eight known plant species
is threatened with extinction. Although scientists are divided over the
specific numbers, many believe that the rate of loss is greater now than at any
time in history.

"The speed at which species are being lost is much faster than any we've seen
in the past -- including those [extinctions] related to meteor collisions,"
said Daniel Simberloff, a University of Tennessee ecologist and prominent
expert in biological diversity who participated in the museum's survey.

Most of his peers apparently agree. Nearly seven out of 10 of the biologists
polled said they believed a "mass extinction" was underway, and an equal number
predicted that up to one-fifth of all living species could disappear within 30
years. Nearly all attributed the losses to human activity, especially the
destruction of plant and animal habitats.

Among the dissenters, some argue that there is not yet enough data to support
the view that a mass extinction is occurring. Many of the estimates of species
loss are extrapolations based on the global destruction of rain forests and
other rich habitats.

Among non-scientists, meanwhile, the subject appears to have made relatively
little impression. Sixty percent of the laymen polled professed little or no
familiarity with the concept of biological diversity, and barely half ranked
species loss as a "major threat."

The scientists interviewed in the Louis Harris poll were members of the
Washington-based American Institute of Biological Sciences, a professional
society of more than 5,000 scientists.

drvr

So Oliver, it is not my crystal ball that tells
me about the threat to the eco-system
and our existence, or if you like my
crystal is the mind of my colleagues who study these things.
Massive Cosumption you say it's a good thing because it's
good for the economy. Think outside the box, it may kill life.


I have posted some data and numbers. But,
now let me tell you a little about truth and reason and logic
Since you were saying, I like to "feel" things becasue I cannot
reason.
(here I am an expert, since I have a PhD in math appl. and an MS
in engineering, one of those immigrants you want to kick out)

There is an amazing result in mathematical
logic which is known as "incompleteness". This says that
there are no decidable set of axioms for logical systems
which have peano arithmetic in them; i.e., roughly speaking they
have the power of integers. Well, just about any non-trivial
system does. So you cannot begin from a finite set of
assumptions (which is certainly decidacble) and by reasoning
find all things which are true. It can never be done; this itself
can be shown. We can only understand the universe by
making models and then reason about them. Thus God has
made the universe in such a way that it defies reason.
It is in this sense that I wrote my faith in logic is limited.
because logic itself is. Feeling is above reason because

"life is more true than reason will deceive
(more secret or than madness will reveal)
deeper is life than lose: higher than have
-but beauty is more each than living's all
...
Death, as men call him, ends what they call men
-but beauty is more now than dying's when"
(E.E. Cummings)

drvr1

trouble with my account, i registered.