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Keep in mind that Europeans have hunted species to extinction simply for hats. People are people. Where I live in Japan, the Japanese worlf is extinct (less t
by mikekchar 8y ago
Keep in mind that Europeans have hunted species to extinction simply for hats. People are people. Where I live in Japan, the Japanese worlf is extinct (less than 100 years ago). The Japanese river otter is extinct (only about 15 years ago). The river eel (unagi) is going extinct and so the price at the restaurant has gone up like crazy (like about $60 for a single eel). Let me emphasize: everybody knows it is going extinct and yet they are still eating it. You've got blue fin tuna being sold at auction for $3 million for a single tuna -- because it is going extinct.
And before you say, "Oh those pesky Japanese people don't care about the environment", these are the things I know about because I happen to live here. Before I moved the US removed quotas from Pacific salmon in retaliation for Canadian softwood lumber prices! The idea was to destroy the fish stocks so that the Canadian fishing industry would be hurt and they would agree to increase prices for softwood lumber. It took something like 10 years for the returning salmon counts on Vancouver island to recover.
We (collectively) suck at this stuff. The more we point our fingers at those pesky Chinese or those pesky Japanese or those pesky Portuguese (don't get me started about the Grand Banks) or those pesky Americans, the more we abandon the idea that we need to work together.
- crushcrashcrush 8y agoMany of the examples you cite are used as foods. It’s at least somewhat useful. Rinho horn, bear bile, etc is not functional in any way (except perhaps wealth signaling) and the sooner we shame the Chinese (and other cultures, including our own - big game hunting, hello!) the better the world will be.
- yeukhon 8y agoI think you have a very negative view about the Chinese. Shame the Chinese? Excuse me?
- crushcrashcrush 8y agoWould you shame someone who catcalls women? I’m shaming a culture who contributes to the distraction of endangered species. I don’t see the issue
- dang 8y agoA billion people is not "someone". The issue is that you're making pejorative generalizations about an entire population, which crosses into national slur—or at least dips a toe into that toxic waste. Not ok here. Please don't "shame the Chinese" or "shame a culture" on Hacker News. Turning HN into a battlefield helps no animals, and there are infinitely many ways to make your points without violating the site guidelines. Please review them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- dang 8y agoYou're right. It's not ok to "shame the Chinese" on Hacker News, or to shame any other population. It sucks that it has become necessary to say that, but group behavior is unfortunately volatile and degenerates quickly. I'm sure that crushcrashcrush wouldn't deliberately shame someone in person just because their background was from China, or anywhere else. The world at large is headed into more of this, so for HN to succeed, it needs to get a little less like the world at large.
- FeepingCreature 8y agoSingling out the worst offenders helps concentrate effort.
- tomhoward 8y agoNo, focusing exclusively on those we judge to be the worst offenders without owning our own failings means we lack empathy and look hypocritical, and thus our appeals are less likely to be taken seriously.
- bdamm 8y agoYou're exactly right, and also why it bothers me so much that some people are trying to solve global warming by encouraging other people to walk more. It ignores the reality that we need to work together to make global policy decisions.
- rdiddly 8y agoSure, point taken, but this one is about Komodo dragons.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago> Keep in mind that Europeans have hunted species to extinction simply for hats. People are people. I'd like to think that modern science has given humanity more awareness of the value of nature.
- brenschluss 8y agoThe attitude around climate change would suggest the opposite.
- darkpuma 8y agoThe desire to protect birds in America and Canada from being turned into hats is what induced the creation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which was a sufficiently bold law to be (unsuccessfully) challenged in the supreme court. So yes, this is an issue that's been generally understood for a century at least.