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This article makes the strange claim that because bushmeat hunting on one island was driven by economic growth, the latter is incompatible with biodiversity con
by lazyjones 7y ago
This article makes the strange claim that because bushmeat hunting on one island was driven by economic growth, the latter is incompatible with biodiversity conservation. As if economic growth wasn't possible in other ways!
It makes no attempt to tell us why biodiversity in its present form is valuable, when species have gone naturally extinct for billions of years. I could do without bats as breeding colonies for dangerous virus strains, for example.
- ornornor 7y agoBecause interactions and dynamics between species goes a little further than “bats bother me, let’s make them extinct” Saying species become naturally extinct so nothing to see here is very similar to saying the planet has cycles of warming up and down so we’re all good here. Of course it never happened as fast and on the magnitude that it has in the last 100 years but never mind it’s probably nothing to worry about, I don’t particularly love winter as much as I do summer.
- clairity 7y agobats are amazing animals and fill a crucial biodynamical role in the ecosystem, for instance, pollinating many beneficial plants important to human survival.
- lazyjones 7y agoSome bats do pollinate some plants, but few (if any) depend on it and none is important to human survival.
- 1over137 7y agoThe bats did nothing wrong. The problem is the way humans treat the bats (and other animals): keeping them captive, in too-small cages, mixed with too many other animals, feeding them the wrong things, etc.
- lazyjones 7y agoThis is not a question of morals or guilt. Some species naturally harm and put other species at risk, bat colonies breed virus strains that can kill many mammals. Mosquitoes kill many people every year without "doing wrong". Should we preserve them at any cost?