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When animal species go extinct, will new ones not just replace them?

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lyublyutvoyumamu
Field Medic
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26 posts 22 Jun 2023 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:54 #1

Scientists say that we’re in the midst of a mass extinction due to climate change, overfishing, plastic pollution, etc. If/when species go extinct, will nature not just reorganize itself and produce a new, healthy biosphere? Hasn’t earth been doing that for billions of years?

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Bulka_or_bulka
Field Medic
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26 posts 13 Apr 2023 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:55 #2

Eventually yes, but not at the rate theyre currently going extinct. That's why its a mass extinction.

Bulka_or_bulka - Axis defense
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GRACE_STINGRAY
Engineer
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39 posts 7 Sep 2020 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:56 #3

Eventually it will. But certain animals going extinct can destroy a large chain of animals that are dependent on them

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SigmaUbermensch75
Field Medic
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32 posts 26 May 2021 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:56 #4

Eventually yes, in theory, if things don't get so bad that no life can live here

But a key difference between this and other extinction events is that this is human made.

SigmaUbermensch75 - NA nights
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950101311X
Engineer
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37 posts 7 Mar 2021 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:56 #5

Maybe. Each extinction has knock-on effects. What they will be is hard to predict.

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I take the dead hours.

huysk
Engineer
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43 posts 14 Mar 2019 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:58 #6

Eventually yes, but that is really bad for humanity, because the "eventually" could be a million years later, and humanity wouldn't have that kind of time if a lot of critical species went extinct.

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Vivat_Hussaria
Covert Ops
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52 posts 29 May 2020 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:58 #7

What is your point?

That we should be ok with terraforming earth into a barren husk with just us and the cockroaches because "new things will evolve eventually"?

Vivat_Hussaria - BF support
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AdaMoshu
Field Medic
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28 posts 17 Aug 2022 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:59 #8

Something has to survive to fill the ecological niche.

AdaMoshu - Axis defense
Do not walk my MG line twice.

tacticalassault666
Engineer
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47 posts 21 Oct 2025 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 16:59 #9

The Anthropocene Era is simply changing too rapidly for adaptation to be a viable genetic strategy. Extinctions are happening much more rapidly than new ones are emerging. It's that rate that is the problem. As long as extinctions outnumber new species, we are reducing the overall size of the ecosystem, and that can lead to an ecosystem collapse.

tacticalassault666 - Old guard
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Wolf_Hello_World
Engineer
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43 posts 26 Sep 2021 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 17:00 #10

Why do you figure that "us" won't be one of the extinct species?

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Vivat_Hussaria
Covert Ops
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52 posts 29 May 2020 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 17:01 #11

There are enough billionaires with bunkers that I am not really worried about humanity going extinct.

Whether it is a world worth living in is another question.

Vivat_Hussaria - BF support
Ammo box is friendship.

huyrich
Covert Ops
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59 posts 7 Aug 2025 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 17:03 #12

Yes, but not within our children's-children's-children's lifetimes. Life on earth will go on but recovery millions of years from now won't do anything to help us now when we live on a devastated planet that's a shadow of its former self.

huyrich - ET pubs
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theZireael
Covert Ops
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56 posts 30 May 2018 joined
7 Sep 2026 at 17:03 #13

This is the thing. We're not trying to "save the planet", long term the planet will be fine.

What we're trying to do is avoid ruining the place where we live. If we ruin it; on a geological timescale it will be fine, but on a human timescale it will be ruined

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