Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

+1
I think this should be my tag line (goes with my avatar):

"Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Rats, can't use it. Too many characters!

How about the first photosynthesizing organisms? They wiped out the whole existing ecosystem, including themselves, leaving only a few mutant survivors.

On a smaller scale, how about the dead zones in the ocean or (best analogy of all) over-fertilized waterways that grow algae etc until they choke everything in them into a dying sludge? We are, if nothing else, a perfect example of an organism living on excessive inputs of fertilizer (oil), going down an unsustainable path.

Point taken. I'm going to use that analogy: the human race is like a toxic sludge of cyanobacteria eating themselves into local oblivion.

You could just change that to "I can't think of a good example of another intelligent species conducting self-extermination."
I don't think we have the right kind of intelligence to make the next step up, but I'd like to be proved wrong.

Perhaps the word "intelligent" should be questioned.