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Subject:Re: Liebig's Law and the limits to growth
The more I think about question of the causes of the mass extinction of the
dinosaurs, the more I think that it may be like that of the fall of the
Roman Empire. There are lots of good reasons why the Empire fell
Date sent: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 09:59:59 -0700
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From: James Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject:Re: Liebig's Law and the limits to growth
The more I think about question of the causes of the mass extinction
The more I think about question of the causes of the mass extinction of the
dinosaurs, the more I think that it may be like that of the fall of the
Roman Empire. There are lots of good reasons why the Empire fell -- but
there's no reason to presume that (absent these causes) it would have
lasted
Boddhi,
I'm not going to pursue this further, but I shall
simply note that I was reporting to you what the current
scientific consensus increasingly is. I was aware of Robin
Hahnel's addition and am aware of some other pieces of
evidence, all pointing in the same direction. Several of
C. Moore,
What you're saying simply does not hold empirical water.
Predators always "go for it". They don't get it and they die. Except for
parasites, non-human predators, even pack predators, are opportunistic. If
they don't get an opportunity, they're
C. Rosser,
No, I'm sorry but you are off. We know that there is evidence of
exogenous shocks, most compellingly an asteroid hit, during the extinction
period. What we do not know is what that shock caused. Asteroid hits
don't kill a planet full of dinosaurs.
C. RKM,
I'm very familiar with the concept of carrying capacity. I am also
familiar with simplistic understandings of ecology that assume things like
total predator effectiveness, etc.. Prey behavior has as much to do with
predator densities as predator behavior.
Boddhi,
Sorry, but you're just off here. Of course we shall
never really know for sure what killed off the dinosaurs
(heck, we'll never know for sure that you even exist or are
not actually "Murray"). But the current scientific
consensus that they got zapped by an asteroid hit is
C. Proyect,
Oh I forgot. Punctuated equilibrium has become the saving grace
of those who want to anti-scientifically idealize nature. In their minds
nature chugs along in perfect balance and order until "deus ex machina"
some mighty event comes along. Nonsense.
4/25/98, boddhisatva [??? give me a break] wrote:
C. Jones wrote: "as Eugene Odum says, the tendency that seems to
characterize natural ecosystems is that of maximizing the quality of the
overall environment for the mutual benefit of all species within it." This
is untrue and it
4/25/98, boddhisatva wrote:
The only reason that African savannah predators don't wipe out
their prey species is that they can't catch them.
You are ignorant, pure and simple. But then theororists of your ilk
never worry much about reality, they see facts a clay, to be selectively
molded
Boddisatvah
To listen to some ecologists, you'd think that extinction and
evolution never occurred. I don't see any dinosaurs around. Do you?
peace
Rabbi Louis Proyect:
The Marxist paleontologist Steven Jay Gould has written intelligently about
this topic, as opposed to this
C. Moore,
The only reason that African savannah predators don't wipe out
their prey species is that they can't catch them. Predators lead lives of
violent desperation and die of hunger and disease. Cheetahs are a
particularly good example of this. Anyone who
To whom..,
C. Jones wrote: "as Eugene Odum says, the tendency that seems to
characterize natural ecosystems is that of maximizing the quality of the
overall environment for the mutual benefit of all species within it." This
is untrue and it characterizes the
In 1842 an obscure professor of agronomy in the
German provincial town of Giessen, published a book in
English which would revolutionise agriculture. Marx
would say that Justus, Baron von Liebig (1803-73) was
‘more important than all the economists put together’.
Only one other natural scientist
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