By killing it that is. Every great extinction seems to be followed by a rapid period of evolution to fill the niches left behind and life seems to take a bit of a leap foward each time. Is it possible that the fact that we're wiping out half of the planets species will actually cause life to be stronger in the long run?

NB: If you don't believe in evolution please don't derail this topic into a debate on whether evolution is correct or not. Please?

Edit: Oh damn. We still can't edit titles? Ignore the 'the' people.

No, we suck. We may be killing out other species, but soon we'll start killing one another. Look at us, we don't have the ability to teleport from one place to another. We don't have flying cars. We don't have space colonies. WTF? We suck at life.

We're all gonna fucking die.

Link please?

Sounds a bit dramatic to be a fact, but I'm open to learning new things.

I would lean toward no on this. Or, at least, not necessarily. There are undoubtedly many conditions we set upon several species that cause individuals unsuited to live in our lifestyle to die, but the thing is our lifestyle is such a rapidly changing thing that it is difficult to pinpoint a particular trait that is best suited to survive an era. Take the classic case of the peppered moth. I'm sure you're familiar with it - (in a nutshell) the dark coloured moths, who, at first, were the least dominant type, began to outnumber the lighter ones as a result of the darkening of tree bark in the wake of the industrial revolution. Fast forward to today, and we're very much heading toward cleaner energy which would lead me to believe that the lighter ones may once again become the more dominant in numbers.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I disagree with the implication that the surviving individuals have to be stronger. They're simply more suited to whatever condition we expose them to at that particular time. Does that make them better suited (or prepared or stronger) for what ever nature has intended for them (e.g. next mass extinction?)? I would say... not necessarily. But it is interesting to think about. Certainly there are cases where that may end up being true.

To be honest, I haven't thought much on the topic before so any feedback would be great.

Edited for accuracy.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/10/21/Study-World-is-undergoing-mass-extinction/UPI-86681224612180/

^^ Oh. Well colour me surprised. I knew it was something absurd, but I thought it was nowhere near past, natural events.

Thanks for the link.

I don't get what you mean here. I understand evolution, natural selection, etc. but this makes no sense at all. How are things going to evolve if we keep killing them all the time?

Oh and even if animals did evolve and get stronger, our guns are getting bigger :)

Interesting, but there's still no proof that all of those extinctions are because of humans.

 

"The current extinction event is due to human activity, paving the planet, creating pollution, many of the things that we are doing today," said study co-author Assistant Professor Bradley Cardinale.

According to the article we're the cause of most of it.

All past extinction events have been due to natural disasters or major shifts in the climate. As neither of these things have happened so far and as humans have been thoroughly fucking up large ecosystems for centuries now I think we might be to blame =P