Extinction of lions
Posted on: September 23, 2009 - 4:19am
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Extinction of lions
Heard it on EuroNews that the African Lion faces extinction within a few decades.
Well. I always wondered what value does that wild beast have. I don’t think the world would be worse off without lions. It is perhaps the most useless wild animal in the planet.
But be it as it may, here in South Africa, the top FIVE wild beasts [the lion being number one] are great business in wildernesses like the Kruger National Park.
[Fully booked for next year's Soccer World Cup - http://www.wild-wings.co.za/]
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There's nothing I enjoy more than watching a lion eat a gentle herbivore. Like star gazing, watching lions getting stuck into their hooven tea gives
me a profound sense of my place in the world and seeing it's as much about me as anyone else, I think yes, lions have a major role to play.
Whether or not they can play this role once they are extinct is questionable. Once they've died out they'll be contaminated by nostalgia and we will
lose all sense of perspective. Look at the Tasmanian Tiger. The last one died in the 1930s and scientists in Oz are constantly droning on about using
cloning technology to make new ones while the Tasmanian Devil draws ever closer to extinction. Devils are much cooler looking than Tigers ever were.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Devil is already more or less extinct. Not a large enough genetic pool around anymore for them to breed a strong population without drastic human intervention.
It's a pity, too. They were great for controlling many different invasive species in Australia.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Lions used to be spread across large areas of the planet.
They disappeared or were hunted over the centuries, to allow humans to occupy their territory.
Did that cause any significant problem in the ecosystems?
Apparently not.
In Kenya, lions attack and eat human beings.
Therefore, the human beings, having the firepower, attack the lions and kill them.
Would you not do the same?
Um. Modern lions were never spread across large parts of the planet, I'm afraid. In North America we have cats like the Cougar instead, and the top of the predator chain (outside of humans) is dominated by ursids like the black & brown bear. It's been like that for quite some time.
Yes, of course, people have the right to protect themselves - by lethal means if need be - from an attacking animal. But lion attacks aren't a huge problem in Kenya; lions only kill about 250 people per year in the entire world.
I could make a better argument for going ahead and eradicating all of the polar bears, for cripe's sake. They're more dangerous statistically and less likely to upset an ecosystem. But guess what? There's still no damn need to go ahead and kill them all.
Some areas of the city I live in have problems with asian gangs. Would your solution to this problem be to just kill all of the asians in the city?
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
And the Devil's days are well and truly numbered.
You might view them as useless, but they do less environmental harm to the world than we do, and serve an important role in the food chain. They have lower carbon footprints than us, that's for damn sure. I don't think their habits are melting the icecaps and destroying our atmosphere which is more than I can say about humans. Humans aren't useless, they're past that point, they are destructive. Take a look at yourself julio, admit it, the Earth would be better off if we went extinct.
Now excuse me I have to go read a post about: Trash shows how we are abusing our planet (seriously, it was the next story)
Vote for Democrats to save us all from the anti-American Republican party!
Please become a Patron of Brian Sapient
Sapient, your points make sense, of course.
I agree that lions are much less guilty than humans.
But in Kenya they attack livestock and therefore are killed, as many as possible.
We are also very destructive, but who is our enemy?
Ourselves.
In the end, we will kill each other and that's that.
Goodbye world, ecosystems and all.
Silence for ever is the ultimate goal of evolution.
I beg to differ.
Check out this utter waste of oxygen:
Anyone else have a picture to post of a particluarly loathsome animal (not theists, we know about them already)
How can not believing in something that is backed up with no empirical evidence be less scientific than believing in something that not only has no empirical evidence but actually goes against the laws of the universe and in many cases actually contradicts itself? - Ricky Gervais
Everything in australia is useless, Really what would happen if the place just sank into the sea? Useless place with useless animals and a useless cricket team and a useless rugby team
Useless
Useless
Useless
Useless
and finally to show you what not useless looks like
Awesome.
But then im guess you Americans wouldn't care about such things as you have your own sports witch no one else plays. If anyone else actually played think you might actually lose! But ofcourse then you have the World Series in baseball in witch what 2 countries participate, yes it truely is the WORLD series.
/end
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
Tapey:
The best thread so far, here! Loved it.
my only reaction is see these clips from season 9, episode 5 of the simpsons. first, we have the hyped-up commercial for a soccer match coming to springfield:
next, we have the reaction to the match itself:
yeah, that pretty much sums up our feelings.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Speaking of useless, I must add British rappers to the list.
5ive & Queen - We will rock you [Live at Brit 2000] - VSN
Uploaded by ertu5504. -
=
yeah i don't remember mentioning soccer in this thread those are rugby teams and a cricket team
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
I raise your music link one Bohemian Rhapsody.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
I take you queen and raise you one
rush - tom sawyer
i know but i believe in the other thread on north american sports you mentioned soccer as part of your trinity.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Too bad for your rush that you're just another brick in the wall
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
I raise you all this thread, and everything in it.
*Puts on sunglasses*
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Oh no you didn't.
F.
*Begins preparations to kill ClockCat*
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Everything as a kind of no avail. Human beings are useless, for example, parrots are useless, but all useless pooling is not useless. We can dispense with many of the individual pieces, the Lions may be one of them we can do without that I do not know, but lose a lot of individual parts and everything falls apart.
As long as hunters are willing to pay $30,000+ to shoot at a lion, they will not go extinct. Although, as far as the ecological impact of them going extinct, I do not think it would be large. As a predator, the lions importance in the ecosystem has been usurped by sport hunters, and there are plenty of other large predators throughout Africa. But I would like to protect them because I would like to shoot one someday, it is on my bucket list.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Maybe you're right [jollybriston], but has that happened before?
Hi OP,
On Judgment day, there's going to be an extinction of atheists when they are all thrown in hell.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
Except for the atheist elect.
I'll save you a seat by the hearth, Jean.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
Luckily, I will not be an atheist at that moment, because I would have finally seen the light!
Gotcha!