Saw this on a blog somewhere ...
The Medea Hypothesis
Paleontologist Professor Peter Ward believes that the great extinctions that have happened in the earth’s past follow a common pattern. With the exception of meteor strikes (such as happened 65 million years ago), every extinction has been caused by living organisms becoming too successful – so much so they upset the ecology balance and destroy their own habitats.
2.3 billion years ago, for example, plant life spread incredibly rapidly, inhaling huge amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This caused a rapid plunge in temperature that froze the planet and triggered a mass extinction.
Ward believes nature isn’t a nurturing mother like Gaia, rather the process is more like Medea, the figure from Greek mythology who murdered her own children.
In this theory, life doesn’t preserve itself, it serially destroys itself. This theory adds a postscript to Darwinian survivalism — the fittest emerge as the survivors until they trash their own habitat.
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Blaming Medea/Mother Nature seems a bit of a stretch to me ... it's not the mother who kills her children in this scenario, it's the kids who wreck the house and kill themselves.
Each year hundreds of people kill themselves in DIY accidents in the house — seems that the same effect happens on a global scale.
God bless,
Thomas
The Medea Hypothesis
Paleontologist Professor Peter Ward believes that the great extinctions that have happened in the earth’s past follow a common pattern. With the exception of meteor strikes (such as happened 65 million years ago), every extinction has been caused by living organisms becoming too successful – so much so they upset the ecology balance and destroy their own habitats.
2.3 billion years ago, for example, plant life spread incredibly rapidly, inhaling huge amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This caused a rapid plunge in temperature that froze the planet and triggered a mass extinction.
Ward believes nature isn’t a nurturing mother like Gaia, rather the process is more like Medea, the figure from Greek mythology who murdered her own children.
In this theory, life doesn’t preserve itself, it serially destroys itself. This theory adds a postscript to Darwinian survivalism — the fittest emerge as the survivors until they trash their own habitat.
+++
Blaming Medea/Mother Nature seems a bit of a stretch to me ... it's not the mother who kills her children in this scenario, it's the kids who wreck the house and kill themselves.
Each year hundreds of people kill themselves in DIY accidents in the house — seems that the same effect happens on a global scale.
God bless,
Thomas
