Sunday, October 28, 2007

Why Not Us?

Death of the species, by the handful:
Poaching and deforestation in the tropics are imperiling dozens of humans’ primate relations, with nearly a third of the 394 known species of apes, monkeys, lemurs and other groups listed as threatened with extinction in a new report from the World Conservation Union.

The report focuses on the plight of the 25 most endangered species, which live scattered around the tropics, mainly in areas of Asia and Africa. “You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium, that’s how few of them remain on earth today,” said Russell A. Mittermeier, the chairman of the panel of primate experts who wrote the report and the president of Conservation International.

I'm just thinking, the primates are closest to us, right? So what makes us think we're so special? Because we have gunpowder? What's to say we're not on the endangered species list before too long, human beings.

With a polar ice year like this one we've just had, would it be such a surprise?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think pigs are closer, no?

Anonymous said...

Insult to the pigs...