By 2015, humans—the homo
sapiens species in particular—had become “the dominant predator across many
systems”; that is to say, the species had become an unsustainable "super
predator."[1]
We have had a huge impact on food webs and ecosystems around the globe.[2] Moreover,
we have been using more of the planet's resources than we should. By August
2015, for example, humans had already consumed the year's worth of the world's resources.[3]
In terms of fossil fuels, the consumption has had an impact on the warming of
the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Behind human consumption are human beings,
so the astonishing increase in human population is a major factor. As a
virus-like species incredibly successful genetically over the previous
five-hundred years, the self-maximizing feature both in terms of population
ecology and profit-maximization may be the seed of the species destruction, and
thus long-term genetic failure.
The full essay is at “The
Intense Predator.”
We are fishing fish out of existence. (James Watt: Getty Images)
1 Chris Darimont et al, “The Unique Ecology
of Human Predators,” Science,
Vol. 349, no. 6250, pp. 858-860.
2 Ibid.
