All over the world, and especially in the less developed societies, the pressure of the human population and its technologies is devastating natural ecosystems. This pressure takes many forms - urbanization and highway construction; transformation of virgin land into farmland; chemical pollution of fresh water; dredging and landfill in coastal areas; uncontrolled hunting and poaching, especially of African wildlife; deliberate and accidental poisoning of wildlife with pesticides; disruption of natural predator-prey relationships; strangulation of millions of birds and fish with discarded styrofoam pellets, plastic bags and other synthetic flotsam; dam construction and irrigation; and massive deforestation.

If this process continues, according to biologists, more than a million species will be extinct by the end of the century. Rain forests will be degraded and destroyed. To some people, the disappearance of other species as a result of human activity is a matter of no particular consequence. To others it represents the height of human hubris, in that we are making ourselves the ultimate arbiters of which species may survive and which may be obliterated.

Why should we protect other life forms?

Lexi:"we are making ourselves the ultimate arbiters of which species may survive and which may be obliterated."

Or we're just expressing our own species' particular traits without much concern about how other species fare, just like all the other species have little concern for humans.

At what point do we draw the line? Should we be having conniptions because smallpox and rinderpest have been killed off?

I used to be vexed about it, but I've come to realise that supplantation of species within ecological niches is natural and normal and occurs all the time, with or without people involved. Sure, we should be a bit careful, but I'm not about to start watching where I put my feet in case the last known example of a rare bug happens to be under them. Are you?

you have a great mind lex
but species extinction...isnt as big a problem
as many believe...genus extiction is tradjic

if we loose a pouch bearing carnivore
or an egg laying mammel..or a dodo
or a dinosaur..or water mammals

i think of extinction in the spiritrual context
knowing dead isnt dead..[ok huh-mans may express feelings about the issue..and cast blame on others..but thats easier than going out there doing something]

we can look at the ruins of the past
but a thing created..lives on in spirit

should we feel regret..of course
cause its really sad...but think if your the last of your species
[as i am]..your just waiting to re-join with your roots

is them enduring suffering
worth the price of your ending..your suffering

we had a cold snap the other day
and 5 species of tropical fish..died in my care
even with the best intentions...things will go to their death

its an interesting topic
one i tried to help in the other rspca topic

but that only ended up being *about the cattle
ie about an issue

or other things
im not sure we deserve these special things

we let die

anyhow im grieving
and as for blame...well what will that change

its gone
their gone

im so glad this earthy hell
experience..for me is nearly over
so much has died..its only fair..cause
we dont know what we got..till its gone

no ammount of grief/blame/shame
will bring them back

when their gone
thats for ever

think globally
act locally

*Why should we protect other life forms?*

Lexi, from my understanding of biology, without biodiversity,
there won't be a humanity. Take a look in nature, where one
species totally dominates. Eventually it crashes, but far harder
and faster as its ecosystem eventually becomes unsustainable.

But humans are far too anthropocentric or wise to see that.
So the species will learn the hard way, eventually, having
taken many other species with it. The world will keep spinning
with ants, cockroaches and similar lifeforms on board, without
too many mammals. So be it.

From a personal perspective, a world without tigers, lions,
chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and all the rest, other
then the last few locked up in zoos, will be all the poorer
for it. Its part of my philosophy that they have a right to
a bit of this planet too.

Apparently not so, according to the majority of humans. Only
more humans seem to matter. All very sad really

I'm not an expert in this field but from the little that I've read the facts quite horrified me and hence I started this thread. It seems that the march of industrial civilisation, which we generally equate with progress toward a better future is having a devastating effect on the other life forms of the planet. In fact, according to biologists we are having a catastrophic extinction of other species, not by the dozens, or the hundreds, or even the thousands, but by the millions.

Apparently this wholesale extinction of life forms occurs primarily in the tropical rainforests, a primordial green girdle stretching around parts of Central and South America, the Congo Basin in Africa, and Indonesian islands in the Pacific. These forests cover less than 6 percent of the planet, yet they contain most of its species. Under pressure from ranchers and peasants, the rain forest is being cut down and burned. More than 40 percent of the original rain forest has disappeared since World War II. If this process continues, more than a million species will be extinct by the end of the century.

As we've becoming aware there are many practical reasons why human society should protect other life forms. Tropical forests are a stabilizing force in the global climate for they absorb vast amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Many plants are medically valuable: most anti-cancer compounds, for example, come from plants of the rain forest, and the pharmaceutical cornucopia is still mostly untapped.

Wild species are a "storehouse" for agricultural scientists who interbreed them with domestic species in order to create more fuitful or resistant strains. The rain forest is itself a vast and irreplaceable "library" from which genetic engineers of the future may draw their raw material. Many species among the millions of uncataloged plants could surely prove to be edible, and could become major crops in the future

Hi Lexi,
I became excited for a while when I read SPECIES EXTINCTION, I thought that someone had passed a Bill for the Extinction of Politicians :)
Ah Well, I will just have to dream on.
Cheers Lexi,
NSB