Sunday, December 10, 2006

Hard Hearted?

Gorillas are dying and could end up extinct soon if ebola and hunting continue. Well, the hunting is one thing, but the ebola is quite another. Now, I don't mean to sound very hard hearted, but shouldn't we let Nature take its course if there is a disease that is eliminating an evolutionary dead end? How many species of primates have gone extinct so far? Is it really in the best interest of the planet to try to "save" every species that has probably lived out its course of life here? Perhaps it's in the best interest of the planet to let the gorillas die off and maybe the ebola virus with them? It is believed that humans contract ebola from the gorillas. Well, don't we kill off cows that have mad cow disease to keep it from spreading? And don't we kill off birds that carry the bird flu? Are we not supposed to protect our own population from real threats such as ebola, or is it more important to cut our CO2 emmissions? If you ask me I think ebola is much more threatening to human life (and that of other animals) than some mythical global warming. Sure, sometimes we like gorillas more than cows and birds because we think they are more like us. But how much like us are they really? I don't know the genetic information on that and I'm not looking it up right now.

Well, this isn't a Sunday Sermonette, not yet anyway. I might modify it later. ;-)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could never understand, as to how any could even bother to be nasty on the web.

I mean, if you do not like what you see then well, click on. Right?

Not really.

Having read your amazingly ignorant blog, I can see for the first time, how that could happen.

Alan Lipman
London

Rae Ann said...

Thank you, Alan Lipman, for spending 11 minutes and 45 seconds reading one post on a blog with nearly 500. Alas, who's amazingly ignorant? And a gorilla lover too! LOL

Rae Ann said...

Well, I was mistaken... this blog has nearly 600 posts.

Anonymous said...

What puzzles me is how many people concern themselves with the welfare of animals, when there are so many humans in need of looking after. I mean, really, how much money goes to PETA and other organizations for animal welfare, when we have homeless and sick and others to care for?

As for Alan, get a life, loser.

Rae Ann said...

dh, thanks, I completely agree. I mean, if there are only about 10,000 gorillas left in the world doesn't that tell us that as a species they haven't adapted well enough to survive? I know your feelings about evolution, etc, but it's these other types who want to pick and choose their science to fit their own agendas. I like animals as much as the next person, but there's no way a gorilla equals a human, not even close.

Anonymous said...

Rae Ann -

I draw a distinction between natural selection and evolution. I believe in micro-evolution (within a species, I think) rather than macro-evolution. Remember that thing about the moths in England at the time of the Industrial Revolution? If the gorillas can't change their color according to their habitat, so to speak, let their fate fall where it may. I mean, the dodos are gone, and I miss 'em, but so far I've lived OK without them. If only they could fly...