Every day we hear more and more about the disasters that we face if we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our main energy sources.

And while we used to hear about the warnings as dangers far off in the future - now we know that the effects of climate change are happening today.

And that the effects are more extreme than we originally predicted even two or three years ago.

But what would happen in the worst case scenario - what would happen if - like Elizabeth Kolbert warns in her most recent book - climate change caused mass extinctions across the planet Earth?

According to new research - it could actually accelerate evolution on Earth!

New research from the University of Texas at Austin used simulated robot brains that were programmed to improve at a task from one generation to the next.

In that way - the robot brains were designed to evolve to be better at a specific task.

For the robots in the study - the task was to walk on two legs.

After several robot "generations" - a number of different robot behaviors had evolved to achieve the goal of walking.

But not all of those behaviors were useful to the goal of walking.

So the researchers "killed" 90% of the robot populations to simulate a mass extinction.

And they found that the robot brain survivors began adapting and evolving much quicker than any groups had before the event.

Which makes a lot of sense according to modern evolutionary theory.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Max Blumenthal (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Big Picture Progressive Roundtable
- Sarah Badawi, Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC)
- Ari Rabin-Havt, The Agenda-SiriusXM Progress 127/The Benghazi Hoax

Conversations with Great Minds - Journalist/Author Max Blumenthal, The 51 Day War-Ruin and Resistance in Gaza/Alternet

Friday's Daily Stack

Article: "Fox News’ Megyn Kelly Announces 10-Day Vacation" by Rich Tucker.

Site: Rand Paul.

Article: "Rand Paul video shows Donald Trump praising Democrats" by Ashley Killough.

Article: "Republicans mull how to do pointless Obamacare repeal and leave enough time for shutdown fight" by Joan McCarter.

Article: "The Bush Doctrine lives on in Jeb! Bush's campaign, torture and all" by Joan McCarter.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: Jeb Bush: "Taking Out Saddam Hussein Turned Out To Be A Pretty Good Deal"" by EarlG.

Article: "Cats vs dogs: Scientists confirm that felines are better... from an evolutionary perspective" by Tom Bawden.

Article: "Trump Is the Authoritarian Ruler Republicans—and Some Dems—Have Been Waiting For" by John Dean.

Article: "Unarmed black 14-year-old shot 7 times by police officer in New Jersey" by Justin Carissimo.

Article: "He's not gonna beat Clinton ........ Bernie Group" by Ichingcarpenter.

Article: "Take me out at the ball game! Drop your gun in the crowd! GunFAIL CXXXIII" by David Waldman.

Article: "Bush White House email controversy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Chuck Schumer to vote against Iran nuclear deal" by Kevin Liptak, Jim Acosta and Deirdre Walsh.

Article: "US flag raised over reopened Cuba embassy in Havana" by BBC.

Article: "Bernie Sanders’ South Carolina campaign stops formalized" by Schuyler Kropf.

Site: Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.

Album: "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus" by Firesign Theatre.

Article: "Angry cops hit out at cheering witnesses who shared photos of beaten detective: Suspect who stole cop's gun and pistol-whipped him charged with attempted murder".

Hour Two: Blowing Up Marijuana's Big Myths
- Phillip Smith, Alternet/Stop The Drug War

Article: "Blowing Up the Big Myths About Indica v. Sativa Strains of Marijuana" by Phillip Smith.

Article: "Why Growing Numbers of Pot Smokers Eat Mango Before Lighting Up" by Clarissa A. León.

Article: "Terpene" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Myrcene" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Frankincense" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Myrrh" by Wikipedia.

Video: Rachel Maddow August 13, 2015.

Article: "Al Gore for president? Don't believe 2016 whispers, associates say" by Jeff Zeleny.

Article: "Happy Birthday, Social Security! I hope I’m going as strong and beloved as you are when I turn 80" by Jared Bernstein.

Article: "VJ Day 70th anniversary: War planes to fly over London as part of national commemoration" by Nick Clark.

Article: "Lawrence Lessig pondering 2016 bid because 'the system is rigged'" by Nick Gass.

Article: "Lavender oil" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ida May Fuller" (first American to receive a monthly benefit Social Security check).

Article: "The Sanders brothers: A tale of two underdogs" by BBC.

Article: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]" by Martin Luther King Jr., 16 April 1963.

Article: "Ben Carson’s tortured defense of his fetal tissue research" by Amber Phillips.

Article: "James O'Keefe and the myth of the ACORN pimp" by Eric Boehlert.

Article: "Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now" (ACORN).

Article: "Poll: Plurality of American Jews Support Iran Deal, 49%-31%" by Joel B. Pollak.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "American Flag Flies In Cuba Once Again" by Nicholas Salazar.

Article: "Labour leadership: Don't back Corbyn, say Kendall and Cooper" by BBC.

Article: "Jeremy Corbyn for prime minister? Why not? " by Brian Eno.

Article: "Bobby Jindal will try to keep Confederate monuments up in New Orleans" by Julia O'Donoghue.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 8/14" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 8/13" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Megyn Kelly Abruptly Announces Unplanned Two-Week Vacation, Effective Immediately" by Scott Eric Kaufman.

Article: "Full Video: Watch the Aug. 6 Fox News Republican Debate" by Nate.

Article: "Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan & Kevin McCarthy: Plot To Sabotage US Economy with Frank Luntz" by keepemhonest.

Book: "When the Tea Party Came to Town: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives' Most Combative, Dysfunctional, and Infuriating Term in Modern History" by Robert Draper.

Article: "Manifest destiny" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Indian Removal Act", 1830.

Book: George Washington's Sacred Fire by Peter A. Lillback with Jerry Newcombe.

Video: Election 2012 | Biden vs. Ryan: Complete Vice Presidential Debate.

Article: "Piezoelectricity" by Wikipedia.

Site: Washington State Coalition to Amend the Constitution (WAmend).

Site: Move to Amend

Article: "Bush campaign lied about meeting with Black Lives Matter activists" by Hunter.

Article: "Scott Walker Says In GOP Debate He Doesn’t Support Abortion If A Woman’s Life Is At Risk" by Kira Lerner.

Book: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Article: "Nonviolence as Compliance" by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Article: "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Article: "EPA’s Colorado Mine Spill is all about Privatizing Profits and Socializing Cleanup" by Jeremy Bloom.

Article: "What We Learned From German Prisons" by Nicholas Turner and Jeremy Travis.

Video: "Michael Moore Goes to Norway & Visits a Prison of the Future".

Article: "MelanicNation, Blackism: By Any Means Necessary" by R. Kenyatta.

Speech: "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

Quote: "My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years, especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action." - Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam speech, 4 April 1967.

Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be talking with John W. Dean about his article, "Trump Is the Authoritarian Ruler Republicans—and Some Dems—Have Been Waiting For."

Plus, Robert Kennedy Jr. will be here to tell us about the CO Mine Spill.

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Will Bernie Sanders’ massive crowds equal massive votes?

Vote here!

CO Mine Spill - Privatized Profits, Socialized Clean Ups

Argentina - Vulture Capitalism Takes Another Step

It’s Official - The Kochs Have Chosen Their Candidate

What Can Be Done About ISIL?

Crazy Alert! The Weather Weiner Curse

Could Mass Extinction Make Humans Smarter?

The Good, The Bad, And the Very Very Iscarioticly Ugly!

Full Show 8/13/15: It’s Official: The Koch Brothers Choose Scott Walker

Thom discusses whether Turkey is fighting ISIS or the Kurds with Professor Edmund Ghareeb, what the Koch’s picking Walker means for the 2016 Presidential race with the Center for Media and Democracy’s Brendan Fischer, and in tonight’s Daily Take Thom discusses what a climate change related extinction would mean for planet earth.

Hey America, BEWARE of Koch Brothers Libertarianism!

Thom Hartmann: Time to Redefine Bribery…

California Grand Juries will no Longer Hear Cop Shooting Cases...

Republican Congressman Regrets Iraq War Vote...

Jeb Bush Meets with Black Lives Matter Before Event...

Caller: The Democrats Need to Clean up the EPA!

Does Ted Cruz Oppose the Eradication of Polio?

Republican Candidates Raking in Fossil Fuel Money...

Unrestrained Capitalism and the Colorado Mine Disaster...