BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 29, 2024
I was idly through the pages of a textbook on historical geology, and chanced on this passage: “The pattern we see in the fossil record is not one of continuous diversification with new species being added, but none ever removed. Instead, the average species lasts a few million years, and then vanishes forever from the face of the planet. It goes extinct.” Human beings are uncomfortable with this fact, because we feel guilty for accelerating the extinction of so many other species. It’s a much bigger deal when an entire existing ecosystem threatens to go extinct, but the first such event is now knocking at our door: the mass death of the coral reefs. ~ Gwynne Dyer