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Old 15-January-2009, 08:43 PM
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Well, I guess I'm an extremist....

Quote:
Originally Posted by mugaliens View Post
The one thing everyone seems to forget, right off the bat, about this entire issue, is that the world is not static.

Never has been! Species, including humans, have migrated in and out of one another's territories since life here on Earth began, and usually in response to some change in the environment (a little cooler, hotter, wetter, drier, more sun, less sun...).

It's normal, folks - even when we're the species that's causing the change.
I hear that reasoning / excuse a lot, whether one is talking about climate change, some sort of pollution, habitat destruction, species extinction, etc.

There are some scientific reasons to be concerned.

For one, most of the changes humans are causing are happening a lot faster than such changes normally happen. I suspect the only "natural" changes that happen faster are things like comets hitting the Earth, and such events are usually major extinction events. Natural systems can not respond fast enough to what we are doing.

Second, lots of these changes have detrimental effects on humans. The introduction of Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes requires multiple millions of dollars a year to keep things like water lines open. The overfishing of certain species mean fishermen lose their livelihood and people lose a food source. Acid rain has damaged lots of buildings and art work in North America and Europe. Now, you might argue that this just becomes a cost/benefit analysis - is it cheaper to fix or prevent the problem. I suspect it is cheaper not to cause the problem in the first place.

But, as I've said before, more significantly, I find it immoral. Such arguments to me are equivalent to saying murder and warfare are ok, because all humans die eventually anyway.

Quote:
My solution is to reintroduce widespread hunting. Tends to solve human food shortages, too.
In fact, that is the solution most commonly used for such things as deer overpopulation. I am in favor of it, but it is an imperfect solution (not helpful in urban/suburban areas, tends to cull dominent males and healthy animals and not the weak - makes herds less healthy - whereas predation has opposite effect). It also does not work for exotic species that people have no interest in hunting, such as Zebra mussles and plant species like Garlic Mustard.
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