Comments on: ‘Threatened’ Status For Polar Bear

By: Earthpal

Earthpal — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:31:36 +0000

Of course they’re unfounded. Dick cheney would sooo not love to hunt and shoot a polar bear and have its head mounted on his wall.

The clause is to there to protect the oil industry. Bloody loopholes. Global warming and drilling for oil are the main threats to the polar bear! Didn’t they recently sell some oil leases on prime polar bear habitats?

By: Pete Smith

Pete Smith — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Oh yes. Sun Tzu, if that really is your name, I released your comment from the moderation queue because it contained a few points that readers might find amusing. Be aware, if you have another go at using this blog to advertise your ’strategic thinking’ site, I’ll dump you straight in the trash.

Be lucky.

By: Pete Smith

Pete Smith — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:44:20 +0000

I care about polar bears because I like them and the world I live in would be much poorer without them. I take an active dislike to arguments such as yours which dismiss species extinction as a mere exercise in utility economics. Five billion dead passenger pigeons, and all you find “interesting” to talk about is the effect that atrocity had on humans? Disgusting.

By: Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:26:36 +0000

Why Do We Care If Polar Bears Become Extinct? This is not any sort of revelation: Polar bears declared a threatened species , but it does raise the question: Why do we care? By some estimates, 90% of all species that once existed are now extinct and new species are always taking their place. For the species that’s going to become extinct, for whatever reason, extinction is the end of it. However, for the species that remain, is the extinction of another species good or bad. When Europeans first colonized North America, there was an estimated five (5) billion Passenger Pigeons alive and well in North America. In 1914, they were extinct. Passenger Pigeons didn’t live in little groups, but huge flocks that required extraordinary quantities of hardwood forests for them to feed, breed and survive. Deforestation to build homes, create farmland and over hunting for cheap food decimated their population. The westward drive to grow the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s was incompatible with the needs of the Passenger Pigeon and they literally could not survive in the new North America being carved out by the U.S. economy. The interesting thing about the Passenger Pigeon was the impact its extinction had on another species—man. That impact was essentially none. Man continued to find ways to feed himself through agriculture and other technologies and the United States and its citizens continued to prosper from the early 20th century till today. Whether or not Polar Bears become extinct because of Global Climate Change or other reasons, we need to address the larger question of: Do we care and why? One of the ways a nation, its citizens and the global community can answer that question is addressed by John A. Warden III in Thinking Strategically About Global Climate Change. He asks some interesting biodiversity questions in his post to include How Many Species Is the Right Number and Which Ones?