So why not pack a few off to Antarctica, where the sea ice will never run out?
It may seem like a preposterous question. But polar bears are just the tip of the "assisted colonization" iceberg. Other possibilities: moving African big game to the American Great Plains, or airlifting endangered species from one mountaintop to another as climate zones shrink.
It may seem like a preposterous question. But polar bears are just the tip of the "assisted colonization" iceberg. Other possibilities: moving African big game to the American Great Plains, or airlifting endangered species from one mountaintop to another as climate zones shrink.
"It's a showdown. The impacts of climate change on animals have become apparent. And it's time to decide whether we're going to do something," said Notre Dame ecologist Jessica Hellmann, co-author of an influential 2007 Conservation Biology paper. "Reducing CO2 is vital, but we might have to step in and intervene."
Once dismissed as wrongheaded and dangerous, assisted colonization -- rescuing vanishing species by moving them someplace new -- is now being discussed by serious conservationists. And no wonder: Caught between climate change and human pressure, species are going extinct 100 times faster than at any point in human history.
And some scientists say that figure is too conservative. The real extinction rate, they say, is a full 1,000 times higher than normal. The last time such annihilation took place was during the time of the dinosaurs. And though many conservationists say that saving species by transplanting them is foolish, others say there's no choice.
I cannot believe that this is what we have come to in such a short amount to time. From "Stop worrying there is nothing wrong with the climate" to "Let's start loading the North Pole animals onto the ark two by two before the ice melts and the flood comes".
I have no idea if this idea is even remotely viable but if it works at least those Gary Larson comics will finally make sense. Polar bears and penguins together at last. Who da thunk it?
great post..interesting point...
ReplyDelete( ABout Gary Larson....he lived in my old hood when 6-6 was small, and he used the same copy center that I used to use, kind of like a Kinko's but friendly with people talking and drinking coffee etc.....he would come in and he was a grumbly grouchy kind of guy....one of the Copy Center workers told me "hey that is Gary Larson, you know that draws the cartoons" I was stunned....he never even smiled....surly....now if they had said he was Stephen King- THAT I would have believed....so I guess he was a Cartoon Genius...eccentric and grouchy....Scrooge with a pen)
Funny you should mention Stephen King. He used to come into the diner that my sister works at in Maine, and she said he was a great guy. She even got his autograph for me.
ReplyDeleteNow isn't that kind of ironic?