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Multiple reasons, one of which is that once a species is gone there is no way to get it back. Also, consider reasons that people want to save historical struct
by derekp7 8y ago
Multiple reasons, one of which is that once a species is gone there is no way to get it back. Also, consider reasons that people want to save historical structures, or preserve old / rare works of art. Or why someone would pay money to a vet to save their pet.
If you saw a fire spreading and was threatening someone's house, would you call the fire department, or otherwise attempt to stop it? Why or why not? Do you back up the data on your computer? Do you wonder why anyone takes pictures in order to preserve a moment in time, and would be upset if all their family photos got destroyed?
- chr1 8y agoWould storing genomes be enough, similar to backing up data until it is needed?
- Arnt 8y agoOnly if you assume that being reared by older animals of the same species doesn't matter.
- KineticLensman 8y ago> Would storing genomes be enough, similar to backing up data until it is needed? I don't think so, because many of the endangered animals are representative of entire ecosystems. Consider orang-utans and the forests they inhabit (many of which are being destroyed to collect palm-oil). If the animals have gone, it is even harder to make people want to preserve their environments in the face of relentless commercial pressure. Some endangered animals also help shape the ecosystems, e.g. when they are apex predators. Once the animals are gone, recreating their communities is significantly harder. As stated elsewhere, most animals are better raised by their own species rather than humans outside the cage. For primates (e.g. woolly monkeys) individuals that have been raised in isolation in captivity also don't make good parents when they do eventually breed, sometimes abandoning viable young.
- manicdee 8y agoProtecting endangered species isn’t just about protecting a specific set of DNA, as per the article about reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone.
- LoSboccacc 8y agoif that's the only reason we could just digitize the animals and archive them somewhere waiting for holographic display to enter consumer markets. the real issue tho is that those species are part of a larger ecosystem, we're currently having large issue in Europe for having eradicated most boars' natural predators.
- verbify 8y agoIf we spoke to someone 1000 years ago and told them in the future we've eradicated bears and wolves, they'd think the boar problem would pale in insignificance to the triumph of removing bears and wolves. I'm not saying extinction is a good thing, but contextually it sounds weird to talk about us suffering from large issues from eradicating those predators.
- LoSboccacc 8y agoheck, around here our grandpas did a large fest out of killing the last wolf around their village.
- pvaldes 8y agoWhen big predators are wiped, medium sized predators explode, big herbivores explode taking all plants and soil and finally many types of diseases will take the place targetting humans.
- ceejayoz 8y agoMaybe "let's ask someone from a thousand years ago" isn't the best way to manage an ecosystem. Hell, ask someone in the 1950s if smoking is dangerous and you'll see the faults in the approach.
- verbify 8y agoMy response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18309857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18309857
- jaegerpicker 8y ago