Human Extinction?

On the merits of honoring the human race with a pre-posthumous Darwin Award for their failure to comprehend the gravity of their planetary abuse.

Humankind: The Extinction Distinction

(22 December 2019, Earth) On this darkest day of the year, the human species seems headed for extinction. Do we merit a mass Darwin Award? In Year 2020, symbolic of keen vision, our committee will determine whether Animalia Chordata Mammalia Primates Hominidae Homo sapiens wins a pre-posthumous Darwin Award for deinstantiating itself from existence--and if so, on what grounds?

Kicking off the party is a scientific paper, "Biomass Distribution On Earth," giving evidence on "the impact of humanity on the biosphere." Over the short span of human history, our ballooning population "has had radical ecological effects." Today the biomass of humans + livestock far surpasses that of wild mammals. Humans and domesticated livestock weigh 14 times more than all other wild mammals, including oceanic whales and dolphins. Wild critters acount for a mere 4% of all mammals!

Domesticated birds (chickens) likewise outweigh all wild birds flocked together. Astoundingly, humans and livestock outweigh all other vertebrates combined, with the exception of fish. However humans are a small fraction of total animal biomass, which is primarily arthropods (spiders, flies, lobsters, etc.)

Run your essay topic for the Extinction series by the Darwin Awards team, via Facebook or Twitter. Essays tagged for web publication will be granted a modest honorarium of $25 & much gratitude.

Humans and their versatile thumbs & brains have evolved an unprecedented ability to alter the Earth, resulting in the present trajectory toward exceeding many functional paramaters of our living planet. Can our brains evolve a smarter culture in time to swerve off the tracks of doom? We had best swerve fast. In the words of The Bard, "If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well it be done quickly."

Beginning today, we are calling out for essays on both sides of the question of human extinction, which will be featured in 52 weekly posts. Final decision on the question of a species-wide Darwin Award will be announced December 31, 2020. Kindly run essay ideas by our team via FB or Twitter for best results. Scientists and references are thumbs-up prefered.