The Catastrophe No One Talks About

In this Our Changing Climate video essay, I look at the looming threat of species extinction and biodiversity collapse. Specifically, I uncover the extent of the sixth mass extinction. What it is and how bad it's happening. Then, I work through the key drivers of the acceleration of species die-offs across the planet. I look at how climate change and land use change (read: deforestation) have destructive consequences for the biodiversity climate. Finally, the video dives into the capitalist forces driving this mass extinction event.

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Some visuals courtesy of Getty Images
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:29 - A Simmering Catastrophe
5:26 - What Is the Sixth Mass Extinction?
9:22 - Why Is Everything Dying?
13:10 - What Is Really at the Root of Extinction?
18:38 - How to Stop the Sixth Mass Extinction
23:29 - Sign up for Nebula
23:57 - Sponsored Message

Correction:
0:34 - The introduction of invasive species, which out-competed the Dodo for food and ate smaller Dodos, were a major factor in the bird's demise.
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Check out other Climate YouTubers:

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#extinction #biodiversity #socialism

[OurChangingClimate]

🍂 How do you think biodiversity collapse will affect you?

[nategar]

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." Edward Abbey

Edit: this is a condemnation of capitalism, not population growth.

[Mike]

I find it amusing how many people consider us to be simply *observers* of the extinction event and not *participants* and all that means...

[kittydranae]

As a Native American, I thank you for how respective you approach this subject, we have known how important and intricate this land is for thousands of years, it was only when The colonial world arrived that all of that changed

[wilharrison]

I have lived in a cabin in northern California for the last twelve years. In that short time I have heard the first grow nearly silent. Twelve years ago I would hear birds in the morning, see many bats hunting the millions of insects in the evenings. Hundreds of squirrels were constantly bounding thru the trees. Thousands of insects of many species would come to the patio light. Now on a good night there will be two or three types of moth with at most 40 or 50 of them, most nights there will be almost zero. The squirrels and birds are nearly gone, the bats no longer seen at all. The tiny numbers of insects is the most frightening sign. I have seen the 6th extinction begin to take hold in the small microcosm. I can't imagine what another twelve years will bring. I'm old enough that it won't make a huge difference before I shoot thru the blue tunnel, but what will the young experience?

[sirmongrel]

I can feel my sanity slipping away every day. I was a super idealist as a kid, now it's shattering to see how people have and are behaving. I'll give previous generations some leniency because they just didn't know better but anyone alive after say the 70s should understand the consequences... However, It's just getting exponentially worse! I've got to take a break from "doom scrolling" or I'm going to lose it.

[thecanmanification]

I don’t think I’ve said this before but I really appreciate how openly anti capitalist this channel is. People need to understand that capitalism created this issue and is continuing to exacerbate it uncontrollably.

People who are climate aware need to understand that things like carbon tax credits to capitalist corporations won’t fix anything. We need global policies that phase out fossil fuels as quickly as we can and stop worrying about the share prices of Exxon and Shell

[bingosunnoon]

I witnessed extinction 60 years ago when an interstate freeway opened just upwind of our farm . Everything died within two or three years. Fruit trees and waterfowl were the first. Then the fish in the lake disappeared and an oil slick covered the surface. The well tasted like gasoline. We were forced to move away. The place looks awful now.

[rennu]

I went to visit the great barrier reef in 2019 and was really horrified at how bleached the coral was

[knutthompson]

This extinction is very, very different for many reasons, but in particular because it is measured in decades and centuries instead of tens of thousands to millions of years. The shock to the ecosystem is unlike anything the Earth has been through before.

[CaptPeon]

I'm an ecologist and I have mixed feelings about having to justify sustainable communities through quantifying ecosystem services.

"Why shouldn't we milk the earth to death?" Is the question I hear all the time from the lay-person unconcerned with the health and diversity of the planet. Why does the value of the WORLD have to revolve around YOU!?

[xXNekou]

It's really depressing. I'm vegan and I try to shop consiously, use less plastic etc, but I know what needs to change is basically the whole system, and I cannot fathom how so many people are so oblivious to it all, and they don't seem to care, or they only care about profits. How is money gonna save you when there is no more food left, no more fresh air, no more clean water, and no more usable land?

[spindlecitysister]

We not only _need_ nature, we are part of it.

[BladeValant]

I like to piggy back,

1. The dodo wasnt just hunted but also killed off by another major human-caused event. The introduction of invasive species, rats, and cats was another cause.

2. I glad you brought up civilizations that trued to go with the flow without infantizing native americans. Exploitative economics sadly is a human thing it in imperialistic powers. Europeans seemed to not learn from the ruins of the Aztecs and Mayans clear cutting their forests and ruining their topsoil. We have to seriously fight back against this mode of production. (I want to make a slightly correction for clarity) The notion of the collapse of the Mayans is still a debated topic. I encourage folks to read up on Mayan collapse it still relevant to how climate change can affect Civilizations)

3. Love you brought up furr traders.

4. Climate change is such a terrible thing hard to see any hope.

[karld]

It really burns me up when we subsidize fossil fuel drilling, roads for driving that are 50% paid for by income taxes, regulate large parking minimums, and single use zoning putting homes a long drive from shops. These regulations and subsidies increase pollution while harming the economy by favoring inefficient building and transportation.

[SuperTonyony]

Infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.

[sebastiandomagala]

I have seen a good example in Germany: there was a water well for a soda company.
It used water from very deep areas under the soil and was allowed to do so, because there was no proof of harm to the environment.
The opposite must be standard: as long as any harm to the environment can´t be excluded, such endeavour must be prohibited.

[ErutaniaRose]

Capitalism sounds like an abusive relationship to me tbh. The kind where you are blamed as if your behaviour causes the abuse, similar to how gas companies blame people with individual carbon footprints.

[peterchui]

Just one thing: there is no “reversing” the catastrophe, only mitigation. We are talking about life being killed en masse everyday, often in gruesome ways. There is no “reversing” the damage, regardless of whether or not new life emerges.

[glen]

World population growth: 1 billion people in 1804; 2 billion people in 1927; 6 billion people in 1999; 7 billion people in 2011; 8 billion people in 2022.