Environmental Awareness *Go Green!!!*

[Suki Wingy]

oh but tigers won't go extinct in captivity, no, there're almost overpopulated.

[Giselle]

True, but they'll eventually go extinct in the wild. Reintroducing species is such a tricky process, mostly because their habitat is gone and there's nothing left to salvage. I'm changing the title of this thread. More people need to read this.

[TamanduaGirl]

oh but tigers won't go extinct in captivity, no, they're almost overpopulated.

and you'd rather they die out completely? We would have no wild bison today if it weren't for private(pet/food animals) keepers who offered there's for reintroduction.

A lot of very endangered animals are not even in zoos, as they aren't "interesting" enough for the public. The zoos have to keep what people want to see to generate ticket sales. With this in mind, many private owners have stepped up to the plate and created stud books. They are really the only hope for some species that don't breed well in zoos, or just aren't interesting.

How many people have heard of a Geoffroy's cat? Not many, and that is because there are only 5!!! in AZA zoos across north america. Pretty pathetic for a CITES I species. So us private owners have stepped up to the plate and made stud books and try and preserve genetic diversity.

If someone wants to one day own an exotic pet, but really wants to help the species, its something to think about. There are programs in place for several species. Here is some more information on the Geoffroy's cat species enhancement strategy for anyone interested in what kind of impact private owners can have:
http://www.geoffroyscatses.org/index.html

most of that after the first paragraph is taken from a friend who just got one of those cats and is participating. I have Pua similarly plan to get her a mate and go from there. Historically tamanduas have not done well in zoos. Some one I know got a pair from a zoo that had never bred they bred almost right away for her and had a baby. I will help preserve her species and educate about her, her enviornment and the plight of the rainforest. Animals do well as pets and when given a "value". No domestic species has ever gone extinct, breeds yes the whole species never. Some species like tigers and lions might one day only be around as pets if they remain legal to keep.

it's nice to complain but what are you really doing to save the earth? How does recycling stop other countries from dumping in their rivers? How does driving less help starving families not kill for bush meat to eat or sell too feed their families? Yes it's better than nothing but it's really hardly anything and requires little to no effort no a days with curbside recycling of cans, cardboard and many plastics.

Have you bothered to write letters to help save prarie dogs in your own country(usa residents). Do you donate money or at least click everyday to save the rainforest http://www.therainforestsite.com/cgi...jects/CTDSites Do you also recycle electronics too? Batteries? Buy used goods? How do people grow their own food living in apartments and slums ect?

In reality most people live in less fortunate countries and are just struggling to survive. If you have even 2,000 dollars in money and possessions you are considered wealthy when compared to the world population! We have it good and as such have more leisure time to worry about the environment and we as a country pollute less and have more preserved lands though 80% or so of all US wild land is owned and preserved by ranchers and farmers, not those factory farmers though. That being said do you buy locally grown produce and meat?

There's a ton more you can be doing fairly easily, try picking just one or two to start. Ever talk to people you see litter or not recycle, pick up after others when you do see trash laying there? Even just tell others to click on that link.

I am also tired of this whole self loathing thing where everyone is supposed to hate their own species. I refuse to believe every single human is scum and that they all should parish. I do not even think the majority is scum. The majority I meet are nice people. None are perfect but are decent beings.

[Lady's Human]

The river dolphin went extinct in China.

You can get upset with China. yell, scream, whatever, they don't care.

This is a country that in the last 30 years has killed millions of its own people. The government just DOESN'T Care. They have been being warned about the Yangtze for at least two decades by the UN, the US, the EU, greenpeace, you name it. They aren't listening.

Why are engines and transmissions for GM vehicles being built in China? Cheap labor and NO environmental regs. The same goes for almost every factory that has been opened in China.

The west has actually been doing a decent job with environmental regs. China and Russia, however, have done nothing. India has done little. And the governments genuinely don't give a damn.

[IRescue452]

Russia just set aside one of the largest total areas of river for a conservation area because of the endangered fish species that use the tributaries. Russia is starting to do good.

[Giselle]

TamanduaGirl, driving less and not helping starving families in Africa is very distantly related. What I was addressing in my initial post was the immediate urge for global warming awareness and the seemingly human ignorance of this issue. While driving less may not directly help a starving family avoid killing a chimpanzee, it WILL help preserve our earth and, thus, the human race. Sure, there are many social and economical problems in the world that we need to address but that in itself calls for its own thread. What I am concerned and very angry about now is the fact that very little people are concerned about the EARTH as a whole. If we fail the Earth and if the Earth fails us, that would mean our ultimate demise.

Recycling very well will and can help other countries stop dumping in their rivers. Until we serve as a model country, no other nation is going to give us the time of day. So how will they "listen" to us if we don't even practice what we preach? Our first objective should be to ratify the darned Kyoto Protocol! I fail to comprehend how we can be so haughty as to criticize other countries when we ourselves refuse to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. I can barely be supportive (for lack of better words) of the human race at the rate we're going. Complain or not, carbon dioxide is rising and so is the temperature. Our environment is failing. Ice is melting. Land is becoming dehydrated. I believe the current statistic for carbon dioxide is approximately 600 parts per million. That is scary.

If global warming were so easy to fix, there would not be a critical debate about it. But it is terribly complicated because we made it so. There is not a single answer. However, the little things we do eventually will add up. So, no, driving less may not directly help a starving family in Africa or Asia. No, recycling may not directly help war-torn refugees in Darfur. No, turning off a light may not help refugees in Iraq. But does that give us a reason NOT to do these little things? We need to do these little things. Eventually, they will add up. A single voice of reason is a revolution in a crowd of dissent. We need to start this revolution for the environment. Otherwise, we're going to find ourselves in a watery grave. And when we reach that point, it won't matter who is starving, who is killing, who is dying. When that point is reached, we will all find ourselves with a similar fatal fate.

Lady's Human, my brother and I had a talk about that and he agreed with you. He doesn't care anymore because the government doesn't. How reassuring

[TamanduaGirl]

My point was that those two or three little things are two or three little things almost everyone does and it's just daily life, at least in most US cities and suburbs. Who wants to pay extra for the light bill? Who wants to pay extra for trash when recycling gets taken away for free? Who wants to pay a bigger gas bill for driving when they don't need to? If that's all you are doing you aren't doing anything. I listed many things that can be done with little effort and you didn't mention any of that. Have you ever done any of them? Did you even bother to click on the link and save a few feet of rain forest? You're likely on line everyday so what harm is there to you to click daily?

As for global warming well the ice caps are crumbling at the edges but they are getting thicker in depth so are really about the same mass as always. The oceans around the equator have actually gotten cooler. The air temp has gone up a bit but the earth has NEVER had a stable envornment. There have been many ice ages and hot dry times, it cycles and this we are living in now has been the longest in between there has been yet. Finlay all the other planets in our solar system have heated up to about the same amount in the same time frame so it could well be related and we certainly aren't responsible for them too.

I wasn't going to bring that up though because it's a 100% we are harming the earth weather we have anything to do with any warming or not. Again the post wasn't saying not to recycle it was saying are you actually doing anything to help I mean realy doing something you wouldn't do every day anyway for other reasons?

[Lady's Human]

Lady's Human, my brother and I had a talk about that and he agreed with you. He doesn't care anymore because the government doesn't. How reassuring

Where did I say that?

[Miss Z]

As for global warming well the ice caps are crumbling at the edges but they are getting thicker in depth so are really about the same mass as always. The oceans around the equator have actually gotten cooler. The air temp has gone up a bit but the earth has NEVER had a stable envornment. There have been many ice ages and hot dry times, it cycles and this we are living in now has been the longest in between there has been yet. Finlay all the other planets in our solar system have heated up to about the same amount in the same time frame so it could well be related and we certainly aren't responsible for them too.

That's a good point. However, whether or not the ice-caps are increasing in depth and therefore staying on average at the same volume, the crumbling of the edges reduces the surface area of the ice-cap. In the Arctic, this harms the polar bear, as I'm sure someone mentioned before. The seals which it hunts do not have the relatively thin sea ice to make breathing holes in, the method that the polar bear relies on to catch them. The seals can just swim in the unfrozen water and the polar bear doesn't stand a chance of outswimming them.

It's true, the oceans will and are getting cooler, due to the ice that is melting into them. I heard that Britain will get a lot cooler before we get hotter due to a current that runs between it and Ireland being affected by the melting ice.

You do have a good point about the fact it may not all be down to us. For millions of years, Earth has plunged in and out of ice ages and heatwaves, so we can never expect that to change. But due to this unstability of our climate, we could really do without hurrying it up.

I agree with Giselle, this certainly has been an interesting thread.