Thread: Let pandas die out, says naturalist

Ah, so humans killed off the dinosaurs and woolly mammoths.

^ What?

If you say so Jet, then it must be so.

New species emerge and old species die out. It continuously happens in pristine habitats untouched by man. That is a scientific fact not an emotional argument.
And it is not arguing that conservation is a bad thing. Quite the contrary.

Originally Posted by Humbert

New species emerge and old species die out. It continuously happens in pristine habitats untouched by man.

Anyone who's not a believer in the Book of Genesis would obviously have to agree but when it comes to conservation, that's beside the point because (i) we have the ability to choose whether or not to intervene and (ii) there aren't any habitats untouched by humankind. Undoubtedly, some of those species currently going (or recently having gone) extinct would have ended up in the same place if humanity have never existed (maybe pandas amongst them) but there's no way to explain the current mass extinction without reference to humanity.

China's entire diplomatic strategy would be taken away from them if pandas died out.

Originally Posted by Dan

Originally Posted by Humbert

New species emerge and old species die out. It continuously happens in pristine habitats untouched by man.

Anyone who's not a believer in the Book of Genesis would obviously have to agree but when it comes to conservation, that's beside the point because (i) we have the ability to choose whether or not to intervene and (ii) there aren't any habitats untouched by humankind. Undoubtedly, some of those species currently going (or recently having gone) extinct would have ended up in the same place if humanity have never existed (maybe pandas amongst them) but there's no way to explain the current mass extinction without reference to humanity.

If you want to lump things together as some kind of "mass extinctinction" go ahead and try to apply scientific reasoning to that belief. Good luck.
I would rather study extinction of species on a case by case basis. No doubt the presence of man and his effect on natural environtments is a major cause of the extinction of some species but not all.

Does it matter. The human race is a cancer on the earth. We will kill everything eventually including ourselves, it's just a question of when.

As we don't know what the vast majority of species are, studying their extinction on a case by case basis isn't going to get very far. What we do know with a pretty high degree of certainty is that man has displaced species of every type in every environment which supports human life (and a great many don't but which serve as receptacles for our waste.) And what we also know is that the trends in extinction show that the current rate is vastly higher than the background rate.

I think you would have to go back through the fossil record to determine what the background rate is, whatever that is. It is certainly true that vastly more species have gone extinct than exist today.

Originally Posted by Blake7

China's entire diplomatic strategy would be taken away from them if pandas died out.

Indeed. Save the Panda. Give the critic nations of China a Panda and all is forgotten.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Ah, so humans killed off the dinosaurs and woolly mammoths.

Humans killed off the wooly mammoth.

Utter bollocks there is no chance of them dying out with all the breeding programs, and the little fuckers make zoos a fortune. I think they all only leased from China though, is that right? Maybe they will disappear from the wild, but not altogether.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

It also means that every post he makes is going into MKP.

Are you referring to BlackGang? Whew, about time!

Originally Posted by chassamui

Species extinction is caused by human intervention and the subsequent failure of species to adapt.

Not solely, of course.

^PH, maybe you should seek help for your BG fetish.

Originally Posted by Humbert

New species emerge and old species die out. It continuously happens in pristine habitats untouched by man.

Every habitat on earth is affected by human overconsumtion and waste. Whilst it is theoretically possible that pristine habitat untouched directly by humans still exists, the indirect effects of our lifestyle is felt downstream and down wind so to speak.
The scale of human damage is only just emerging and it has already, or will affect, oceans forests, deserts, mountains, air quality and ultimately our climate.
We have tipped the balance of biodiversity in favour of our demise.

Cubs go to panda 'kindergarten'
Monday, 28 March 2011

Baby pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of the giant panda breeding programme in southwest China's Sichuan Province have started to live away from their mothers and move into the panda kindergarten.


Panda cubs - Have left their mothers

Baby pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of the giant panda breeding programme in southwest China's Sichuan Province have started to live away from their mothers and move into the panda kindergarten.

Video footage shows that the baby pandas begin their day by doing morning exercises on the playground, where they appear to enjoy the spring sunshine.

The twin brothers display their skills of biting, pulling, kicking and drawing in their battle over the water pit, to the delight of visitors.

rte.ie


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