Sunday, August 15, 2010

Do any of us really miss the passenger pigeon?

Saw something on television last night about a bloke with a grizzly bear whom he had rescued as a cub. The whole program was about grizzlies and it focused on the problems with grizzlies that are being experienced in Yellowstone National park, where they are apparently hunting humans. One of the reasons being that a beetle is destroying the pine trees whose cones are the bulk food source of the bears, when other food, like spawning salmon, is not available. The time the film crew chose to be in America, just outside Yellowstone, several campers had been attacked, one killed and partly eaten, and others injured in bear attacks. In this instance the attackers were a mother bear and her cubs, which meant the mother had to be destroyed and the cubs placed into zoos. The babies had learned something that night, which would put them and people in jeopardy.

So humans are most probably responsible for global warming and therefore the beetle is not dying as it would usually in the severe cold of winter, because the winters are warmer and allowing them to breed and feed rather than have the cold temperatures which would keep their numbers under control. It's not their fault, taking the opportunity to expand their species. That's what human beings and all other species do as well. Human beings also kill bears whenever they were capable of or allowed to do so. However, bears must not kill humans? Double standards that humans live by. Naturally the bear hunting lobby is all ajoy with the news of bear attacks, demanding that more bears be allowed to be hunted and killed. Not with spears and bows and arrows of the American Indian, but with rifles that are of a calibre and size that ensures even hitting a bear in a limb will almost tear that part of it off.

So much destruction from our previous and continuing stupid actions as human beings. Progress without thinking things through. Every new thing being touted as marvellous with myopic vision; accolades from flawed science, which is always flawed at any rate. Comfort without consideration of how it encroaches on or, removes comfort from other species that don't demand anywhere near as much as the human species. It's sad, but what generation will be born that sees the problems their species has caused and start to look at ways to pull back from the damage being done? Can we really enjoy the world as much without other species? Do any of us really miss the passenger pigeon?

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