Timeline for Could a virus that just kills plants be the end of us all?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 30, 2018 at 12:51 | comment | added | Ash | @Joshua In some of the developed west we'd have enough food reserves but most places are screwed, those places are going to produce literally millions of hungry refugees, most of the places with reserves are going to be destroyed by hungry, angry, strangers before they get the chance, some places might pull through if you only killed the two families I've mentioned but I don't give any particular group good odds. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 23:47 | comment | added | Joshua | I'm pretty sure there's enough beans we could gear up in one year. Still going to be a bad year. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 13:09 | comment | added | Ash | @jpmc26 Yes Corn is a grass, so are Rice, Wheat, Rye, Spelt, and Oats, if you throw in the Nightshades, that's potatoes, tomatoes, yams, and a few others, including tobacco. That leaves very few food groups and not many of them produce high calories per acre, brassicas, the carrot family and the pulses (peas, beans, and lentils) are useful but they're not widely grown as caloric stables so if you kill off those two families (grasses and nightshades) really fast humanity is in deep deep trouble. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 4:20 | comment | added | Anton Sherwood | @jpmc26 since you ask, yes, corn is a grass. | |
| May 28, 2018 at 21:15 | comment | added | JAB | @jpmc26 Potatoes are in the nightshade family. | |
| May 28, 2018 at 20:38 | comment | added | jpmc26 | Is corn a grass? What about grapes? Strawberries? Potatoes? Carrots? Lettuce? I am honestly not convinced those 3 are nearly all the non-trees we grow. | |
| May 28, 2018 at 16:18 | comment | added | Ash | @Willk Have a look at the articles sited here there seems to be a new chapter since I last looked at the debate though; the first two articles "The Evolution of Modern Eukaryotic Phytoplankton"and "Impact of Grassland Radiation on the Nonmarine Silica Cycle and Miocene Diatomite" are the works I know about but "Cenozoic Planktonic Marine Diatom Diversity and Correlation to Climate Change" is new material. Also see if you can dig up the BBC documentary "How to Grow a Planet", that's where I first encountered this. | |
| May 28, 2018 at 15:52 | comment | added | Willk | That bit about oceanic oxygen / silica / dung / herbivores is new to me. Link? | |
| May 28, 2018 at 15:40 | history | answered | Ash | CC BY-SA 4.0 |