I wouldn't say the Earth is really fragile, is it?

It's literally held together by broken fragments that constantly grind against each other yet holds together rather firmly.

What would be more appropriate than the forum header 'Fragile Earth' though?

Earth has been through a lot of changes, including asteroid strikes causing nuclear winters, ice ages, etc. The Earth itself is not fragile, but we are. We can only live within a narrow band of temperature and other features, so if earth gets too hot, we die. If it gets too cold, we die. If it floods the lowlands, a lot of us die. The Earth can and has recovered from far worse fates than we have thrown at it. "Fragile Earth" is about us, not the Earth itself.

originally posted by: throwaway115
It's literally held together by broken fragments that constantly grind against each other yet holds together rather firmly.

What would be more appropriate than the forum header 'Fragile Earth' though?

An OP that consisted of more than two sentences might be more appropriate.

a reply to: throwaway115

I agree that 'Fragile Earth' is a pretty stupid forum name, however, I wouldn't have been inclined to actually make a post regarding its suitability.

As far as a better name for the forum? I think 'Mother Nature' would be more appropriate as it tends to be broader and more inclusive of topics regarding weather, animal migrations etc.

Neither do I and these folk

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

a reply to: throwaway115

Agreed, the earth is super resilient.

Our current environmental state is less so.

The environment can change drastically for many different reasons .
But earth has been around growing life for billions of years, during times when the environment state was such that none of the life we see today, including humans, would be able to survive it.

So yeah, the earth will continue on as it always has.
Whether or not humans will be able to survive the changes is another question.

My hope is that humans learn how to control the entire environment of our planet so that we can keep it at whatever state we wont.

a reply to: Metallicus

Mother nature is more of a religious moniker.

Better to call it simply "nature".

to paraphrase a certain mr carlin the earth is just fine the PEOPLE are F####d

Fragile or not, it's still best not to handle it carelessly.

a reply to: Majic

Like Macron said; "There is no planet B."

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Majic

Like Macron said; "There is no planet B."

But is there a Planet 10?

The earth is fragile. Slight changes in any of the planet's ecosystems would result in gigantic changes to the earth. The earth is fragile and it must keep its balance.

originally posted by: Ghostsinthefog
The earth is fragile. Slight changes in any of the planet's ecosystems would result in gigantic changes to the earth. The earth is fragile and it must keep its balance.

your assessment is easily disproved and in more blunt (pardon my french) accurate comment....BULL QUANO.

Lets take ONE EVENT ...it was the asteroid hit.

It did as much damage as all the volcano eruptions ever done COMBINED.

It was as bad if not worse than a "nuclear winter"/

Hell it altered the "planet's ecosystems" almost all life was WIPED OUT.

What happened?
Life came back as strong as before, just with DIFFERENT plants, organisms, ect.

Everything that exists today INCLUDING MAN is just another age on this planet that if we , cosmic incident , or something here on earth (EX mega volcano) it just will be another wipe out and another rebirth

Lather , rinse , repeat.

We can effect the planet. Even (ex nuclear war) in a major way.
but it is TEMPORARY at best.

nature will always survive and do whatever the hades it wants in-spite of us .

In conclusion its the height of arrogance to think that the earth is so fragile that it requires HUMANS to protect it.

Scrounger

To call this forum --- Hardy Earth --- would be a misnomer...

Martian A. Nah nah everything is fine Mars has been through it all before.

Martian B. But if something irreversible happens to the climate it could end up an ice ball or a scorched desert everywhere.

Martian A. Nah won't happen and even if it does technology will save us.

Martian B. How? Is it not our tech that has polluted the atmosphere through greed and war.

Martian B. Well the next planet out is habitable and we have already established a colony there.......

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: throwaway115

Agreed, the earth is super resilient.

As a planet, yes. As a home for life..that remains to be seen. I'm sure at one point there was an atmosphere on Mars, probably teeming with some sort of life...and look at it now.

Our current environmental state is less so.

The environment can change drastically for many different reasons .

I'm one that believes that humans and their various ventures can change the earth quite a bit. Balance is the key to making those changes less impactful to the world.

But earth has been around growing life for billions of years, during times when the environment state was such that none of the life we see today, including humans, would be able to survive it.

So yeah, the earth will continue on as it always has.
Whether or not humans will be able to survive the changes is another question.

My hope is that humans learn how to control the entire environment of our planet so that we can keep it at whatever state we wont.

Again I would say balance not control, is the key. Even to the point of having zones or areas where commercial enterprises are not allowed for the sake of maintaining that balance. It would be nice if we humans could invent a way to scrub some of the methane and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere...especially if it could be reclaimed for other uses.

As far as humans surviving I think our best bet is to find an off-planet solution.

a reply to: scrounger

I agree, humans time on this earth is going to be only a blink of an eye after we are gone.
The earth will continue on without us and not even look back .

Like Neil deGrasse Tyson once said (I'm paraphrasing)

The Earth is tough. It can take asteroids hitting it and just about anything we can throw at it.
But life on Earth, can't.

Never once said the earth needs human protection. In fact i have alwats been a firm believer that we are tje biggest threat to nature and health of tje planet. All im suggesting is (without having to use french) to state the earth is not fragail is your opinion. That many professors woyld argue with. Can an asteroid damnage tje earth yes and wteck havok? Yes. Therefore fragile. Fragile doesnt have to be astroid hit = planet explodes.

If you live on a planet, where eco systems NOT humans have the ability to stop pollination, to destroy life in the ocean by one single act, natural occurances can shift to make the it uninhabitable then yes id say fragile.

Is the earth fragile - yes in the essence of the word
Is the earth resilient -more so than fragile yes

It's better to think of earth as fragile than to think we can just do whatever we like to it without any consequences. What animal destroys it's own habitat?