To Dismiss The Current Extinction

Our Biggest Threat Is Not An Asteroid About To Crash Into Us, Something We Can Do Nothing About. Instead, All The Major Threats Facing Us Today Are Problems Entirely Of Our Own Making. And Since We Made The Problems, We Can Also Solve The Problems.

Human Societies Vary In Lots Of Independent Factors Affecting Their Openness To Innovation.

Not Until The Beginning Of The 20th Century Did Europe's Urban Populations Finally Become Self-sustaining: Before Then, Constant Immigration Of Healthy Peasants From The Countryside Was Necessary To Make Up For The Constant Deaths Of City Dwellers From Crowd Diseases.

Starbucks Goes To A Great Effort, And Pays Twice As Much For Its Coffee As Its Competitors Do, And Is Very Careful To Help Coffee Producers In Developing Countries Grow Coffee Without Pesticides And In Ways That Preserve Forest Structure.

Thousands Of Years Ago, Humans Domesticated Every Possible Large Wild Mammal Species Fulfilling All Those Criteria And Worth Domesticating, With The Result That There Have Been No Valuable Additions Of Domestic Animals In Recent Times, Despite The Efforts Of Modern Science.