Is it really? We're in the middle of a mass extinction caused by our activities:
The Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction,[3][4] is an ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch (with the more recent time sometimes called Anthropocene) as a result of human activity.[5][6][7][8] The included extinctions span numerous families of bacteria, fungi, plants[9][10][11] and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates. With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforests, as well as other areas, the vast majority of these extinctions are thought to be undocumented, as the species are undiscovered at the time of their extinction, or no one has yet discovered their extinction. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background extinction rates.[15]
This has been going on for a very long time and there's clear signs the rate of environmental destruction is accelerating. At some point we will lose the fish and cetaceans. There is no doubt about that. To say that this time has finally come is not such an extraordinary claim.
Anyway I'm sure that scientists have been warning about this (the destruction of the oceans' ability to sustain life) for decades and nothing has been done. It makes sense that, either those scientists were wrong in their warnings, or fish and marine mammals will die out, sooner or later. So what makes it extraordinary?
I mean, that's why people say destroying the environment is not a good idea, right?
It follows pretty directly from the absence of plankton, eh?
I don't doubt that there are people out there monitoring plankton levels from satellite images, and they could probably clear things up on where we actually stand in re: ocean life and trends thereof. But not a few randos on reddit, eh?
