Vegetation is expanding at high altitudes in the Himalayas

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51050456

114 33 7 years ago

cs702• 7 years ago

Inevitably, reading this makes me think of the well-known quote by Jeff Goldlum's character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, in Jurassic Park:

"life finds a way."

kzrdude• 7 years ago

We are life, and we'll need find adaptions too.

bryanrasmussen• 7 years ago

No we are not life, we are living beings. Life finds a way but living beings die and their species go extinct.

revscat• 7 years ago

Sometimes Dr. Malcolm is wrong, though. Sometimes life doesn’t find a way.

Sometimes there are mass extinctions.

reallydoe• 7 years ago

And there were things that lived through those mass extinctions. So he wasn't wrong, since life found a way to continue

Pfhreak• 7 years ago

Life, in aggregate, still finds a way. Mass extinctions bring down a lot of life but not all of it.

michaelcampbell• 7 years ago

Which could provide an open niche for other life.

overcast• 7 years ago

Mass extinctions is why we're here commenting on HN.

ceejayoz2• 7 years ago

Sure, but the context of that quote was basically "... to kill you".

MS90• 7 years ago

The context was reproduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oijEsqT2QKQ

"You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will breed?"

"No, I'm simply saying that life, uh, finds a way."

Then later on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-6I8f89K4

"Life found a way"

serverQuestion• 7 years ago

Good news everyone, we are gaining new green spaces!

pvaldes• 7 years ago

Good news everyone, we are gaining new green spaces!

Is not so simple, sadly. This is a well known ecological problem. A huge problem.

Big mountains have lots of endemic flowers that evolved for standing very high and cold places and growing very slow. Now they are being pushed literally towards the top of the mountain. They can't compete with the other plants in warmer places.

Eventually the entire mountain will go out of their ecological range in the same way as an island that is being slowly sinked in the sea. At this moment the entire ecosystem and thousands of unique species will go extinct. And is happening at a worlwide scale, all at the same time. Himalayan plants could survive but most mountains do not have a upper level devoid of life.

This species specially adapted to stand really harsh places could be sorely missed in the future if we want to terraform other planets

mirimir• 7 years ago

This is not at all surprising. It's happening in central Mexico too. But there, it's desert that's moving up.

Generally, moving inland, poleward, and up are the options.

slumdev2• 7 years ago

Most coffee is grown well above sea level. If other organisms start creeping into higher altitudes, we could be in for a rough ride.

edgefield0• 7 years ago

If? I think it's safe to say that this will happen and we're in for a rough ride.

wavefunction• 7 years ago

According to the article and other articles it _has been_ happening and is happening right now. It's gonna get very hairy.

jngreenlee3• 7 years ago

Fortunately synthetics are coming online. This is the new world: https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1214186103931932672

At least it preps us for space survival as well...without instant folgers packs...?

slumdev2• 7 years ago

I have concerns about this. From their website https://atomocoffee.com/formulation

By evaluating the individual compounds in coffee we were able to map the most significant ones contributing to the characteristic aroma and flavor of coffee.

More and more, we're learning how micronutrients and chemicals that we wouldn't even class as micronutrients are beneficial to human health. If they've brought over only those compounds most significant for aroma and flavor, what are we missing? I don't think it's alarmist to suggest that this "coffee" might resemble the real thing as far as our senses are concerned, but it might lack all of the health benefits of grows-on-a-tree coffee.

brailsafe• 7 years ago

I'd rather die

chrisco255• 7 years ago

Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth, Study Finds:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fer...

Vegetation is expanding at high altitudes in the Himalayas

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