ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how to establish the new and future impact of people species, Homo sapiens, on this planet, especially on their own sustainability. The Drake equation takes the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets, of habitable planets likely to contain life, of those with intelligent life and of those with radio technology to arrive at the number of civilisations that may exist. The concept of ‘great extinctions’ was popularised by Elizabeth Kolbert in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Many large fauna extinctions at our hand have occurred on islands, as in Tasmania. The Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, were regarded as a limitless resource that was exploited to sustain a growing human population. The disease, which had profound neurological effects similar to cerebral palsy, was found to be due to concentrations of heavy metals in shellfish in Minamata Bay and its surroundings on the West coast of Kyushu, the result of industrial pollution.
