Will humans provoke their own demise?

I was thinking about a movie I watched a while ago...it was called "The Happening" if I remember correctly...the trees and plants begin releasing a deadly neurotoxin which triggers something in our brain causing us to commit suicide...and I think something like that is actually more likely than one may initially think...here is my reasoning:

Deforestation takes place at an extremely alarming and ever quickening pace:

Global deforestation sharply accelerated around 1852.[75][76] It has been estimated that about half of the earth's mature tropical forests — between 7.5 million and 8 million km2 (2.9 million to 3 million sq mi) of the original 15 million to 16 million km2 (5.8 million to 6.2 million sq mi) that until 1947 covered the planet[77] — have now been cleared.[78][79] Some scientists have predicted that unless significant measures (such as seeking out and protecting old growth forests that have not been disturbed)[77] are taken on a worldwide basis, by 2030 there will only be ten percent remaining,[75][78] with another ten percent in a degraded condition.[75] 80% will have been lost, and with them hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable species.[75]
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For tropical countries, deforestation estimates are very uncertain and could be in error by as much as +/- 50%,[84] while a 2002 analysis of satellite imagery suggested that the rate of deforestation in the humid tropics (approximately 5.8 million hectares per year) was roughly 23% lower than the most commonly quoted rates.[85] Conversely, a new analysis of satellite images reveals that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is twice as fast as scientists previously estimated.[86][87]
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A 2005 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that although the earth's total forest area continues to decrease at about 13 million hectares per year (or 36 football fields a minute), the global rate of deforestation has recently been slowing.[91][92] Still others claim that rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace.[93]
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Despite these uncertainties, there is agreement that destruction of rainforests remains a significant environmental problem. Up to 90% of West Africa's coastal rainforests have disappeared since 1900.[98] In South Asia, about 88% of the rainforests have been lost.[99]

Rates of deforestation

Now lets examine evolution and adaptation a little bit...it's been noted that when a species faces a threat, it must adapt and find a new way of surviving this threat...usually what we see is a dramatic decline in numbers but a small number survive because of natural immunities they may posses due to genetic mutations and abnormalities...then what we see is is a rapid increase in numbers...because those few survivors reproduce and now they entire population of the species posses an immunity to the threat because the survivors passed their genes on to the next generation...AIDS is a good example...it slowly became immune to every cure we had until we couldn't cure it anymore...a better example might be the rabbits introduced to Australia:

The rabbits were eating much of the sparse
vegetation that supported Australia's huge sheep and cattle industry, and
the graziers were suffering enormous financial losses.

The only solution was biological control. After much testing,
government biologists introduced a mosquito-borne virus called
myxomatosis. This virus caused a nonlethal disease in its natural host,
but the disease was deadly for the European rabbit and completely harmless
to all other Australian wildlife, domestic animals, and humans. To all
indications, the solution had been found.

The disease did indeed take hold in 1950, and by 1952 it had produced a
nationwide epidemic in the rabbit population. The mortality rate reached
99.9%, BUT A GOOD EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST COULD PREDICT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
NEXT. A parasite that invariably kills its hosts before ensuring its own
survival would be selected against (all of its individuals would die).
And that is what inevitably happened to the myxomatosis disease. The
viruses had been randomly mutating, and the mutations that produced less
virulence were selected (because the more virulent strains died with their
hosts). The rabbits, too were mutating, and they were being selected for
greater resistance to the disease. The result was a milder disease and
stronger rabbits-therefore more rabbits.

source

The rabbit population quickly and dramatically dropped after the disease was released...but it didn't effectively kill all the rabbits...and their population again began to rise...the actual disease also became less potent because like the rabbit, it too, had to ensure its own survival...it couldn't kill its host, because it's essentially killing its self...so what we end up with is a balance...and this is what we should see in nature...a natural balance between species...a delicate ecosystem where all species benefit from each other...but humans don't work like that...we consider our selves the top dogs...we are more powerful than any other species and we can do what we want...we don't find balance with the environment...if it doesn't suit us we manipulate and change it so that it does...we don't find a place in the environment...we create our place...there is no balance at all...and we relentlessly destroy species and the natural environment/habitat in which they live...wiping out species and their place in the delicately balanced ecosystem, creating imbalance and instability for everything else...

Now lets consider this...lets say humans are the disease...they are the AIDS of this planet...destroying life everywhere they go...what happens...if one day...there is a species in mortal danger of extinction due to the disease which is the humans...and this species adapts and evolves in order to survive before we fully destroy it...if the day comes when we start to provoke our own demise...when there is a reaction to all the damage we cause...maybe we will understand the importance of balance... ... ...but I doubt it...we'll probably just devise another way to destroy them...

[edit on 7/1/10 by CHA0S]

In my opinion, mankind is the worst virus on the planet.

We have done so much damage in so short a time, that I believe we will indeed make ourselves extinct. It's going to be the years leading up to that when we finally realize as a species what we are doing, that it will be too late.

I don't believe that it will be another species or virus that will destroy us, it will be ourselves, but we shall have to wait and see on that one.

reply to post by tribewilder

In my opinion, mankind is the worst virus on the planet.

Aw, what'sa matter sunshine? Cheer up, now! Ignorance is supposed to be a blissful state after all!

My opinion is that if you can't tell the difference between an invasive species and a virus, then your opinion is worthless since you apparently don't give a damned about the truth of the matter or trying to understand on even a basic level.

This is a major pet peeve of mine. I have very little tolerance for the embrace of ignorance in the pursuit of a self-serving ego boost gained by kicking humanity in the collective balls for having the audacity of being human.

Whatever though, go paint your face and pretend that you are the noble savage. Though if you're going to cry over our abuse of the ecosystem, would it be too much to ask for you to remove the rose colored glasses and see it (and humanity) for what it really is before it's gone?

reply to post by Lasheic

I have very little tolerance for the embrace of ignorance in the pursuit of a self-serving ego boost gained by kicking humanity in the collective balls for having the audacity of being human.

So...let me get this straight...to be human...is to be extremely destructive, killing everything around us for our own personal gain, totally uncaring as long as money is involved? Well...if this is so...I wouldn't consider myself human...

The strange part is there are more trees in the US now then there has been in the last 300 years.

So the deforestation is in countries like china and other third world countries.

When land is logged in the US it is replanted plus you have many cities in non forest areas of the US with trees that were not there before the cities.

reply to post by ANNED


Well I didn't know that...though, I have a hard time believing it...can you provide a source for this claim?

reply to post by ANNED

The strange part is there are more trees in the US now then there has been in the last 300 years

What is your point, this is a big planet and the U.S. is a small part of it that uses most of the world's resources, aside from that the U.S. does not have rain forests that is the breath of our planet.

S&F for OP

[edit on 7-1-2010 by Aquarius1]

Originally posted by CHA0S
reply to post by Lasheic

 

So...let me get this straight...to be human...is to be extremely destructive, killing everything around us for our own personal gain, totally uncaring as long as money is involved? Well...if this is so...I wouldn't consider myself human...

Humans Are an Invasive Species.

The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species (e.g. plants or animals) that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically. It has been used in this sense by government organizations[1][2] as well as conservation groups such as the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).[3] The second definition broadens the boundaries to include both native and non-native species that heavily colonize a particular habitat. The third definition is an expansion of the first and defines an invasive species as a widespread non-indigenous species.[3]

We aren't the only ones:

North American Invasive Species List.

Further:

Human Migration: Out of Africa

We originated from, and in most all regards are still adapted for, the African sub-Saharan environment.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by Lasheic]

Humans are an enigma.

Yes, some of us are the worst creations on the planet, and some of us are the best.

But we can never agree.

I think that is what will destroy us, if not the planet.