I’m not hating on animals, and I don’t want them all dead, trust me. But, the thing is, if they cannot adapt to the way the earth is changing then they shouldn't be able to survive. Some animals went extinct before the intervention of human life. Speciesism, and the unforeseen consequence of intervening will also be discussed. After affects of certain animals going extinct, and the way it will change human life, will prove that the animals who can adapt to situations should survive.
Past Extinction with animals
In the past, before human intervention, animals were dying. According to Daniel Simberloff, professor of environmental studies, 99.9% of all existing animals have gone extinct. Natural selection has picked the best animals fit for survival in their time. Evolution has caused humans to look the way they do, as well as whales, kangaroos, and elephants. With the ever changing environment some animals are bound to be left to the history books, while others thrive.
As humans have only been around for 200,000 years, there was extinction before them. Many would argue that the cause of extinction of animals was a slow cause. This is false because if we look back we can see the asteroid that hit earth, the Ice Age that froze over the earth, and volcanic eruptions that killed more than half of all living things on earth at the time. All of these events were not slow happenings. All were very fast acting phases that the earth went through affecting both plants and animals.
Speciesism
Speciesism is when humans put themselves above all other living organisms and they believe all other species are inferior to humankind. Often people argue that Speciesism is a viable way of thinking. Humans have removed themselves from the food chain altogether, and we have a moral conscious to know what is right and wrong. Although, yes this it true, humans are also evolutionary creations of the earth. Our evolutionary power has made us intelligent enough to use fossils fuels, as well as creating other plastic items. As a new wave of evolution, animals must adapt to their changing situation. If humans are to let animals live their lives the way they do, then some will adapt to the changing environment while other don’t.
Dangers of Intervening
Although people think it is important to save the animals, it is actually quite harmful. Humans have been known to selectively breed different animals such as dogs, and even foxes. When choosing different characteristics to enhance, and others to be washed away by other genes, serious health risks can occur. Dogs would have a hard time living without humans. This is because they were bred to have specific features. Pure bred dogs are notoriously known to have impending health risks that can affect to the dogs long term. Where am I going with this? Well we are doing a similar thing with animals that cannot adapt to their own living situations. Aside from not trying to amplify different characteristics, humans are letting the weak genes bleed through into the population, ultimately creating a species that will become more and more dependant on human resources to survive.
What if they do die?
The biggest argument is that if the bee population dies off, then there would be no pollination for plants and food sources will become scarce. Bee populations are slowly starting to dwindle. Honey bees are one of 25,000 different pollinators in the world, but are estimated by Chuck Dinersteine, Senior Medical Fellow at the American Council on Science and Health, to pollinate over 70% of the world's crops. Scientists are not quite sure of the cause of the lowering of bee population (however some correlation can be seen between bee population and pesticides). China, one of the highest populated countries in the world, has noticed the drop in crop yield, making it hard for farmers to make money. With the exponentially growing population, the farmers decided that there was another way to pollinate their corp.
According to Dave Goulson, a professor of Biology at the University of Sussex in the UK, Chinese farmers went around hand pollinating flowers with brushes. The farmers not only noticed a change in bloom quality, but they also got a 30% higher crop yield than letting bees do the work. As humans, we should adapt to our changing situations the we set up for ourselves. Since the presumed use of pesticides and fertilizers are causing the bee population to go down, we must adapt to the changing world.
Affect on humans
The biggest argument I have seen against this opinion is that everything that is killing the animals is unnatural. Now this argument is based on how subjectively a person defines natural. I would say that everything on the earth is natural. Humans are a natural evolutionarily created species. Everything that is made, discovered, and even thought of, is all from the evolutionary process of natural selection. Humans adapted to the environment to such an extent that the we learned how to make tools and use the resources around us to advance our living style. Everything that was given to humans was a slow natural evolutionary process. My idea that humans are natural things, that were created by the earth, makes me believe that anything that we in turn think of has to be a natural process. Humans have evolutionarily evolved to be able to make and use straws, as well as plastic bags, and use fossil fuels. These are all traits that natural selection picked out to make our species thrive in the given environment.
Introduction of new species
As one of the leading causes of animal extinction, the introduction of new species can be harmful to ecosystems. An animal with little to no predators can cause a big population of foreign animals, while the native animals are being consumed. Since there are no predators, the new species will thrive, and usually spread. The harm of introducing new animals into a different ecosystem, could be detrimental for the survival of other species. This is however a very natural thing that happens without humans. Tornados and water spouts are known fro picking up and setting down animals hundreds of kilometres away. Hurricanes will travel even further with different species. The introduction of new species into different parts of the world is inevitable. But as I have stated before, other animals will see the rise in their population, and find a way to obtain its nutrients.
What to do now?
It is always hard to turn away from those who are in need of help, but the help we give them will ultimately cause them to become dependant. Letting animals figure out their own adapting situation will be ideal for stronger animals that are equip to handle the changing environment. As living being with consciousness it is our place to make moral choices, but sometime the moral choice is to not do anything.
This article is in no way representing It' s My Blyth, or displaying It's My Blyth’s social view point. It is merely an article giving my own thoughts and opinions.
Written by Sami Whittall