In his riveting text entitled Why We Make Mistakes, Joe Hallinan gives (compelling) empirical evidence, which suggests that optimists are overconfident, and that pessimists are realistic. Hence, since I place more value on being correct than on being optimistic; in this post I am going to adopt a pessimistic outlook on global warming: I'm going to let my imagination run wild—until it conjures-up an apocalyptic worst-case/dystopian scenario that may materialize if global warming is not arrested forthwith.
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The global collective consciousness is currently saturated with the fact that there has been a steady increase in the average temperature of the biosphere since the mid-twentieth century (global warming). As you probably know, pundits in the field of Climatology (from the IPCC) projected that this trend will spill-over into the twenty-first century, and, they currently conjecture that average global surface temperatures have the likelihood of rising a further 1.1 °C to 6.4 °C (2.0°F to 11.5 °F) by the end of the twenty-first century.
The key difference between the brains of mammalians and reptilians is that; mammalian brains have a neocortex and reptilian brains don't. According to the Laboratory of Neural Microcircuitry, the "neocortex is a repeating stereotypical microcircuit of neurons. This neural microcircuit lies at the heart of the information processing capability of the neocortex, the capability of mammals to adapt to a rapidly changing environment, memory, and higher cognitive functions."
Hence, the absence of a neocortex in the reptilian brain implies that reptiles, (and this is a generalization) will find it difficult to adapt to rapidly changing climatic conditions (that are caused by global warming). Thus, it is reasonable to say that reptiles, ceteris paribus, face stronger chances of extinction (because of the effects of Global Warming) than mammals.
Therefore, this means that reptiles, like snakes, that regulate the population increase of disease-carrying-mammalian vermin, like rats, will be increasingly vanishing from the face of the earth in the future. Hence, it is reasonable to say that the global population of mammalian vermin will grow exponentially, because of the rapid extinction of some of their main natural predators. In the future, may come a time when rats greatly outnumber all the other inhabitants of this planet (in an environment characterized by rapidly depleting resources). Thus, it is reasonable to say that: In the future, human-beings face the strong risk of being mauled-to-extinction by hungry armies of rats.
We'll need a real Pied Piper of Hamelin to play a tune that will seduce rats from human settlements into rivers. :-) Either that, or we need to start an intensive cat-breeding programme.
Currently, the known universe of the adverse effects of Global Warming includes:
- Negative changes in agricultural yields (owing to climatic change; especially because of extreme fluctuations in rainfall patterns).
- Sub-optimum changes in transportation routes - in response to climatically-influenced terrestrial morphing.
- Extinction of flora and fauna species; as a direct result of climatic changes, which I'll further elaborate-on in this post.
The key difference between the brains of mammalians and reptilians is that; mammalian brains have a neocortex and reptilian brains don't. According to the Laboratory of Neural Microcircuitry, the "neocortex is a repeating stereotypical microcircuit of neurons. This neural microcircuit lies at the heart of the information processing capability of the neocortex, the capability of mammals to adapt to a rapidly changing environment, memory, and higher cognitive functions."
Hence, the absence of a neocortex in the reptilian brain implies that reptiles, (and this is a generalization) will find it difficult to adapt to rapidly changing climatic conditions (that are caused by global warming). Thus, it is reasonable to say that reptiles, ceteris paribus, face stronger chances of extinction (because of the effects of Global Warming) than mammals.
Therefore, this means that reptiles, like snakes, that regulate the population increase of disease-carrying-mammalian vermin, like rats, will be increasingly vanishing from the face of the earth in the future. Hence, it is reasonable to say that the global population of mammalian vermin will grow exponentially, because of the rapid extinction of some of their main natural predators. In the future, may come a time when rats greatly outnumber all the other inhabitants of this planet (in an environment characterized by rapidly depleting resources). Thus, it is reasonable to say that: In the future, human-beings face the strong risk of being mauled-to-extinction by hungry armies of rats.
We'll need a real Pied Piper of Hamelin to play a tune that will seduce rats from human settlements into rivers. :-) Either that, or we need to start an intensive cat-breeding programme.
