Extinction Begins with Silence: Apathy, Shifting Baselines, and Choosing to Act

About this episode

Chris discusses the concept that extinction begins with silence and the importance of taking action against species decline and ecosystem changes.

Chris opens this min episode by arguing that extinction begins with silence and that humans live in “awareness without response,” Citing species decline and ecosystem change, including emperor penguins being upgraded to endangered with a projected 90% decline by century’s end, he frames our current global reality. Chris states apathy, quoted from Dr. Jane Goodall, as a quiet, dangerous gap between knowing and acting, driven by disconnection, distance, and overwhelm. The time to act is now and Chris sets up for future episodes on how we will accomplish that. Timeline 00:00 Extinction Starts With Silence 01:01 Awareness Without Response 02:28 Apathy Not Ignorance 03:50 Vaquita And Pangolin Examples 05:31 Slow Collapse And Shifting Baselines 06:39 Birdsong Comparison Australia vs NZ 09:59 Forest Elephants And Ocean Declines 14:59 Migration Timing Breaking Down 17:31 Inaction Becomes A Decision 22:06 Responsibility And What We Can Do 23:03 Jane Goodall Hopeful Sendoff == Another thank you to all our Patreon supporters. You too can join for one cup of "good" coffee a month. With your pledge you can support your favorite podcast on Patreon and give back to conservation. With the funds…

People in this episode

Host: Chris

Topics covered

• extinction
• apathy
• conservation
• ecosystem change
• species decline
• responsibility
• action

Keywords

• extinction
• apathy
• species decline
• ecosystem change
• conservation
• action
• Jane Goodall

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