Sunday, May 18, 2008

The latest panic

Pootling through the newspapers and read that, according to a report, 27 percent of species on the planet Earth have gone extinct since the 1970's. I was actually very surprised, and rather concerned to read this until I saw where the report came from. Then I relaxed.

My reasons for not panicking? Well for one, the study came via the World Wide Fund for Nature, the WWF. That highly reliable source about all things natural. At this juncture the report became meaningless to me. Certain Environmental groups have, in my eyes at least, seriously devalued their integrity with false assertions, wild exaggerations and in certain cases, outright dishonesty. In short, if they said the sky was blue I'd poke my head out of the house for a quick look see.

Personally, I'd like confirmation by a more reputable source, one that actually named the species lost, rather than the sweeping media generalisations. Even if it was true, what on Earth could we do about it apart from do something about humanity? Perhaps they might suggest a cull of some sort as the answer? If so, how many? Are the 100,000 said to have died in Burma enough? The Earthquake deaths in China? Maybe one of the ongoing famines in Africa? Okay guys, where do you want to start to 'save' the planet?

Maybe we should do what Douglas Adams characters did with the whining environmentalists who complained about a potential Disaster Area concert. That is, go for a meeting with them and have them all shot.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You have rather fallen for the clever wording which does not refer to species extinction but population decline.

However you are completely right that it is total bollox.