At https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/12/231214132524.htm … we are told that 100,000 years ago, humans migrated Out of Africa – the latest piece of consensus science. We are told they were adept at hunting large animals – and they went on to colonise all of the earth, settling every kind of landscape in every corner of the world. From desert to jungle to the icy taiga, and anything in between. Numerous species of large animals died out in the Late Pleistocene period – and other species experienced a dramatic decline. They fail to mention that even human numbers also fell into decline – and some humans died out altogether [such as the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and various others]. Yet, climate cannot be a factor we are told. Well, climate change in the sense of the woolly headed version we learn about today, perhaps.
Basically, mainstream is continuing its bitch fight between two sides – one supporting climate change as a major factor, and the other, intent on accusing humans for the extinctions. Catastrophism is not a feature. It is ignored by both sides. In this study it is all down to a few human hunter bands armed with bows and arrows, the atlatl, and spears, that brought these great herds of large fauna to their complete demise – and various other species into a dramatic loss of numbers. Where ever they were. The new study from Aarhus University, shows that abundances of large species fell around 50,000 years ago. Or, to be more precise, around 40,000 years ago = the Laschamp Event. Where the 50,000 years ago figure comes from is anyone’s guess but is probably associated with Bayesian dating methodology which keeps pushing the event further into the past. 42,000 years ago is regularly cited by some authorities, in keeping with Bayessian dating systems. On the other hand, it may be that they actually wish to distance themselves from the Laschamp event – which involved a reversal of the geomagnetic poles. Likewise, they begin at 750,000 or 800,000 years ago – an effort to distance themselves from the geomagnetic reversal on that occasion. One can see straightaway that the researchers have hemmed themselves into a field that is defined by two catastrophic events. They must also assume that nothing much of note occurred between the two reversals – but it did. The Eemian interglacial for example, and the 450,000 years ago glacial advance in Europe. They do not appear to make much of those two events – but they must have had an effect on humans and animals. They claim, basically, that no extinction of animals occurred between 750,000 and 50,000 years ago. I suppose it only takes a new study to say otherwise.
The next point in their armoury is that climate cannot be the blame for the extinctions or population collapses. Simply because no extinctions occorred in the time frame they have created. Hence, only humans can be responsible for killing all those animals. We are talking about hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Looking at it from the perspective of uniformitarianism, which discounts catastrophism, one can see where they are coming from. Its a bit like a climate model. If you only factor in what you think might be going on you will get a result that reinforces your thinking. If you ignore catastrophism and then catastrophism will be absent from your conclusions. We also know that around 50,000 years ago, or to be more precise, at 40,000 years ago during the Laschamp Event, humans also almost died out. Yet, they are supposed to be responsible for killing all those animals. On top of that when whole herds of horses have been found buried in mud and sediments one has to wonder how humans managed to achieve that trick. No doubt the climate worriers will be back with a reposte – and will also ignore catastrophism.