When will we learn...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8702000/8702598.stm

Bah, human kind makes me sad sometimes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8700000/8700472.stm
polar bears next

Does it matter? Only one in a million of all of the species to have ever existed is still around. Extinction has been factor on Earth long before we ever started wrecking the place.

Though I am sad we lost the chinese river dolphin.

yeah i guess one day we will be extinct when that huge meteorite comes down to earth
i personally won't be sad to see humans driven from the face of the earth
nasty bunch

Does it matter? Only one in a million of all of the species to have ever existed is still around. Extinction has been factor on Earth long before we ever started wrecking the place.

Though I am sad we lost the chinese river dolphin.

Heard somewhere that hundreds of species become extinct everyday or something like that.

There's a difference between many of these, and the needless and avoidable extinction, of otherwise successful species, caused by man.

first they came for the dodo and i didn't do anything because i wasn't a dod
then they came for the Alaotra grebe and i didn't do anything

then they came for me

STOP EATING TUNA
STOP using plastic when you don't actually need it knives forks for lunch plastic bags at the supermarket
JUST GODDAM STOP IT

Does it matter? Only one in a million of all of the species to have ever existed is still around. Extinction has been factor on Earth long before we ever started wrecking the place.

Though I am sad we lost the chinese river dolphin.

+1

Things like this happen regardless of whether or not we use plastic bags.

I know this is a serious thread, but I had to share this gem. I was at a concert last night and there was a comedian opening, eventually started talking about global warming and asked why we assume it's a problem with the earth and not the sun follwed by "when I burn my toast, I don't blame the bread"

...I guess you had to be there.

one of my teachers was telling me that if one species of insect died out then the whole ecosystem will fail, but if all the humans died out, then the world would resume to its previous state... or something along those lines

"four legs good, two legs baaaaaad..."

Isn't this an example of the charismatic megafauna debate - that big 'cute' animals get all the attention/fudning for conservation schemes whilst ugly little snails and worms and shit are ignored and wiped out all the time, with no one batting an eyelid. Why is this duck worth more than some horrible infectious hookworm or whatever?

(PS: I think it's sad that this duck has died out. But not that sad.)

Things like this happen regardless of whether or not we use plastic bags.

I know you're not being serious, but this is the kind of thing people think excuses them from ethical thought about their lifestyle. It may appear absurd to link getting a few bits from the shop with the destruction of the environment and extinction of thousands of species, but it's never the less true.

The link is there, but obviously, the question of who is responsible is very difficult. Business has to operate at a profit, people need affordable shit etc etc. THe fact is it's happening and we all need to change it.

Also while many species will be wiped out naturally, many successful species are and will be killed off by the activity of humans.

I know you're not being serious, but this is the kind of thing people think excuses them from ethical thought about their lifestyle. It may appear absurd to link getting a few bits from the shop with the destruction of the environment and extinction of thousands of species, but it's never the less true.

The link is there, but obviously, the question of who is responsible is very difficult. Business has to operate at a profit, people need affordable shit etc etc. THe fact is it's happening and we all need to change it.

Also while many species will be wiped out naturally, many successful species are and will be killed off by the activity of humans.

I'm not saying the whole plastic bag thing is a lie, of course it isn't. My point was (as you alluded to yourself) that we can't tell if we're responsible for many of these extinctions or if it was a natural occurance.

Personally I think that people get much too worked up about these kind of things. It's nature, there's an order. Species that are higher up in th order kill species below them. It has been like that since the dawn of time and will be like that until the end of time. Whether humans are a part of that order or not has no effect on that fact.

So when 80% of the malaysian rainforest is destroyed to make way for palm oil prodcution, undoubtedly wiping out thousands of species, you think that's the just the natural order of things?

can we really prolong the end of the world?

So when 80% of the malaysian rainforest is destroyed to make way for palm oil prodcution, undoubtedly wiping out thousands of species, you think that's the just the natural order of things?

Yes.

^ That is just bait right? BTW there are a multitude of repocusions to deforestation other than extinction of habitat.

can we really prolong the end of the world?

no, but do we have to accelerate it?

no, but do we have to accelerate it?

no

^ That is just bait right?

Originally it was, as I can't be bothered getting into one of these arguments again.

Then I got thinking, why is it not natural? People use the word natural all the time, when it comes to food that particularly gets me, but that's another topic. If one species starts wiping out another species and they become extinct as a result, is that natural? If the impact of species like lions, sharks etc. on an ecosystem is natural, why is man's impact not natural? We're animals at the end of the day. We're just another species that will live for a tiny period on this planet like all the other species that have lived and died out beforehand.

You realise all your reasoning is aimed towards absolving humans of any responsibility. That's a very depressing view.

Well it's my view and I am about as far from depressed as you can get. I'm not interested in an argument, i'm guessing you aren't either. We have different viewpoints, I respect yours despite not agreeing with it and i'd like to think you do the same.

apparently it is now ok to eat cod again though.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/sustainable-again-ndash-the-north-sea-cod-saved-by-careful-conservation-1973928.html

really
i've been off cod for a couple of years now
best tasting fish out there FACT

The sooner the human race wipes itself out the better if you ask me

If you really believed that you wouldn't be posting on this forum.

really
i've been off cod for a couple of years now
best tasting fish out there FACT

Cod is fucking disgusting.