65 million years ago during the cretaceous-tertiary extinction event 75% of earths flora and fauna went extinct, including the dinosaurs (which ironically enough in this particular post, made room for mammals to dominate).
251 million years ago the "great dying" or permian-triassic extinction event occured where 96% of all marine life and 70% of life on land (plants, insects, and vertabrates) went extinct. the great dying was huge!
We are presently living within the era of the holocene extinction event, which biologists are deeming the most accelerated mass extinction event in history. It is estimated that half of the species alive today will be extinct in the next 100 years.
that reality is a harsh one to accept and conjures up a lot of emotion. who doesn't cringe at the notion of gorillas and orangutans being extinct?! maybe you don't. is that a bad thing? maybe not.
most people are empathetic-we experience the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of those around us which in turn influence our actions. during catastrophic events like 9-11 or hurricane katrina thousands of people not even in new york or new orleans felt the sadness, the anger, and despair of those in the midst of it all. so in a world where half of the species we have grown up to know or at least be aware of dissapear (a world that would also nonetheless be struggling with a myriad of other harsh changes related to global warming, over population, etc.) is it a disadvantage to be empathetic?
