Do people still not get it? We as humans have a responsibility to protect the other species on this planet. Every species. We are the only species on the earth capable of manipulating the environment on a large scale. We abuse the **** out of this power. We won the evolutionary jackpot, adn with that comes responsibility. And I am no environmentalist hack, this is just logic.
where is it written that we have a responsibility to other species? Other species are lucky that we have a sense of morality..... then there is this bible quote - Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea(I read sharks here) and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Where does our responsibility come from? I think you have a misplaced sense of morality is all. It's nice that you care about other living things, but save that love and caring for an organism that can return it. You are going to die one day and whether or not there are sharks in the ocean is going to have minimal impact on your future beyond the self created stress from interactions such as these on the internet. The big picture is this: Earth has a limited life span. Therefore everything on earth is temporary. What are we going to save the sharks for? So that future generations can be awed by their savagery? I don't need to be killed by the bare hands of a neanderthal to know they were vicious murderous hairy ape men. No I say we focus on saving humans first, then cuddly land animals and then if there is room on the spaceship for aquariums we will save the food species first. Frankly I'm not going to spare a tank for great white's but if it's a democracy and not a dictatorship (i would advocate the latter with myself being self appointed) then I guess we could take a vote on it.
Yeah, that's a good analogy. Humans should kill sharks cause we need their space (let's move into the ocean) and resources (do you realize what a staggeringly large amount of fish humans take from the ocean)? We're not competing, in the ecological sense, with sharks, so this is not a matter of scarcity of resources or space. We just want to be able to splash in the waves when we'd like without fear.
You guys should study biology for an undergrad and then go back and study conservation biology for your phd and fulfill your destiny as sissified ladymen environmentalist. seldom seen is actually a self hating human who wishes he was born a shark so he could eat all of us at his local line up only to realize that sharks can't surf and aren't actually smart enough to carry out such a sophisticated humanish idea so he just swims around in circles chasing his tail. Don't be mad brinestein
MFITZ +1 Thanks for citing the created order and man's ordained dominion, which does promote stewardship of the planet, but establishes the value of and priority of human life. When we get this out of whack, we kill our young, calling it choice, and devote energies to save malevolent man-eaters. The thinking about needing to "cull humans" is approaching the dangerously "Hitler-esque" zone. Also, +1 shark-hunter, good post.
Well firstly, I want to thank you for accepting my analogy as sound. Secondly I'm confused as to the rest of your post because it seems to be condescendingly disagreeing with me. I'm going to just stick with the first sentence and assume you made a large continuous typo afterwards.
what are you talking about? sharks like killing seals... humans have been known to kill the hell out of seals... sounds like a competition to me.
Your logic is flawed, that's not even a remote possibility. Thats what cracks me up about any of this type of debate. As the global population races towards 9 billion(isn't that the estimated pop at current rates in 25 years) we will be fighting wars over water way before we're ready to colonize space. And self-loathing is off the mark, I'm just a bit of a misanthrope.
Guys, the planet will become enveloped by the sun in a few billion years anyway so why bother conserving anything? I mean, why bother being a parent to your children? Why bother wiping your bum after you ****? Why bother signaling your turns on the highway?
You don't think there will be room on the space ship for the aquariums? It will be tight and hard to get off the ground initially, but I Figured once in space the weight would help with inertia once we got up to light speed. To be only slightly more serious for a moment, there's a ecological term called carrying capacity. Environments balance themselves out. If there's not enough water for humans our population is going to go down. It seems scary but it's going to be mostly 3rd world people that die, just like how they are dying of starvation right now. I also know that I can desalinate my own water on a residential scale and that it is already done on an industrial scale and there's plenty of saltwater on the planet. And I know the media and national geographic like to scare people because it increases their ratings and therefore quarterly profits.
Ever hear of the Marine Mammal Protection Act? That's what, you know, led to the surge in seal numbers on the cape, presumably leading to the increased numbers of great whites, which in turn fueled this discussion you're contributing such wisdom to.
Every animal has its place in the food chain. When you kill all the bigger fish, the smaller fish become too abundant and then eat too much of the even smaller things like the phytoplanktin. Phytoplanktin are responsible for over half of the photosynthetic activity on Earth(you know, the stuff that creates oxygen for you to breathe). So basically, if you wanna breathe air on land, preserve the marine life in the ocean.
yeah, Im aware of it. but Im not sure how you made the jump to posting this to the banter I posted? lol.
F-in A man, my bad. Lack of vocal inflection gets me every time. SI needs a color coded posting system where you can indicate your true sentiments behind each post. I think PJB's current tirade on the "This is the end" thread would have to be coded red.
oh and one other thing I forgot to add. What's with these idiots swimming with sharks without a cage on some of these "documentaries"? They remind me of that guy in Alaska who had pet names for all the bears and ended up getting eaten(clearly he was mentally ill). The discovery channel seems to be encouraging the mentally ill to dive in the water with sharks without a cage. Another example of a silly ratings grab. Their having people risk their lives for absolutely no reason basically. It serves absolutely no purpose. When are people going to figure out that wild large predators are extremely dangerous? I think the survival instincts of humans are starting to disappear in some people because we've been out of the wild for too long.
