10 Most Endangered Species

[John N]

Wildlife most threatened by trade includes Napoleon Wrasse, Great White, a turtle and a dolphin.

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_...?uNewsID=15092

[Moray]

It is truly a pity that I must be grateful for having seen Napolean Wrasse in my lifetime, and that I must fear that my grandchildren never will. My grandchild is 5 years old, so that gives you an idea of the time frame: this is not future cacaphony.

So much loss is based on OUR lifestyle, which can be summed up in one word:

HAVE!

I will have this, I will have that, at anyone's expense, at the planet's expense, at your expense, because I am unable to control or modify the nature of my desire. The nature of my desire is to fill my emptiness with THINGS which will raise myself in my own estimation and in other's estimation.

Do any of us EVER stop to examination the nature of our desire, and to perhaps say NO.

We have food, shelter, warmth in winter, plus unimaginable luxury. Yes, folks, believe it or not, cars are a luxury, computers are luxury, shower gel is luxury. Alcolhol, cinema, music CD's etc etc... the list is endless.

Shark fins, wrasse lips, exotic pets are simply an extension of all this.

I will not even go in to the moral question of HAVING so much while so many go without even necessities (food, shelter, medical care).

I do not advocate a return to cave-dwelling, but would it not be possible to examine and MODIFY our desires, as a species, before our species wipes out the rest of them?

Do I have ANY RIGHT at all to the any of the resources of this planet, and if so, why? And if not, perhaps I should grateful for life, grateful for the fulfilment of necessities, and not go greedy over every luxury that hits the marketplace!

rant over

moray (feel free to flame)

[John Gulliver]

I'm sure I'm a LOT older than you, Michael, but isn't it amazing how quickly we become dependent on the things you rightly call luxuries? I managed fine without either a computer or a mobile phone for the first 50-odd years of my life but I couldn't do without either today. I'm not sure what we can do about this but I'd fight tooth and nail to prtect Napoleon wrasse, for example, if I could.

[Moray]

Dear John

My name is Rebecca *grin*, and you are probably not that much older than me, if at all *grin*

But that is what I mean...we got on fine without mobile phones, but now every 10 year considers a mobile a necessity!

*rant*

[Ian B]

Maybe it'll come down to education of the next generations to make everyone realise how fragile our planet really is. I find it hard to do anything to help other than financial contributions to charities and trying to eat the "right" foods, especially fish, where the supermarkets don't seem to help.

Anyway in 1990 Douglas Adams of Hitch Hikers's Guide to the Galaxy fame wrote "Last Chance To See.." with zoologist Mark Carwardine, where he goes around the world trying to find species heading for extinction. Its a good read, and it makes you think.

I wonder how many of the animals in mentioned in the book are still with us?

[John Gulliver]

Originally Posted by moray

Dear John

My name is Rebecca *grin*

Whoops! Sorry, Mrs Michael!

[Chris Hall]

As I read various posts, look at websites, read the papers and listern to the radio it becomes very clear to me that we are the problem.

And that we are doing nothing to stop it.

So as we are all to blame, what can we do to put it right?

I would love to know.

[kate7bell]

Am I right in recalling someone (may be David Attenburgh) mentioning that in present and near future days we are and will be seeing an exinction rate of species greater than ever before.... including the KT boundary period?

It is a question rather than a statement, sure I heard it as stuck in mind, but cant quarentee the source... thoughts anyone?

kate

[Moray]

Of course it is us...at least, mainly.

History suggests that extinction is part of the life process, but WHY should we accelerate that process on the part of animals, while ignoring the fact that WE TOO could be become extinct!

I live on a live volcano, I am confronted with that possibility always.

But as for what we can/should do to decelerate the extinction rate, as I said: examine and modify our desires. What do we really NEED as opposed to want?

moray

[John N]

The answer is for us all to stop breeding and preferably 'lose' several hundred million people to reduce pressure on the planets resources.

That's obviously not going to happen, so what's next?

Well, the unrestrained capitalist system isn't that helpful. Profit before everything else. Economic Growth is the saviour of everything. Of course economic growth relies on consumption and a lot of the stuff we are consuming is irreplaceable.

Like oil. As the Chinese (for instance) get lots more 'economic growth' they obviously want cars...which run on oil. So, oil reserves get used up faster. And prices go up.
This will really piss of the Americans, and the British come to that.

Eventually, and probably sooner than we think, we'll be out of oil and we better have a replacement. Before that though, we'll probably have a bit of a war over the last few drops, perhaps contributing to the required reduction of the human population...