Maverick623 From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 4744 posts, RR: 6 Posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 1157 times:
Quote: so one wants to make sure in general that as many eggs hatch as possible and then let nature take over."
For the record, I don't mind one bit that they're helping a turtle out; everyone needs a hobby.
What bugs the hell out of me is in the same sentence, they claim that nature should take it's course uninterrupted, but only after they're done playing God. It's arrogant to the extreme, and it's quite obvious the article is an editorial/emotional piece to make people feel bad for not feeling bad.
And then, they go on to say (again in one sentence) that the turtle doesn't really know what's going on, but that they think it does because it.... thanks them? Gives them a high five? No.... it lays it's eggs like it normally would.
And the best part of all: most eggs won't hatch because other animals will eat them.
Digging a hole to help the turtle lay its eggs is "playing God"? I don't understand...
Its clear that this particular turtle is good at surviving, I mean..she has survived since 2007 with just 2 flippers..nothing wrong with 'assisting' her a bit with respect to laying her eggs. Its no where near playing God..geez..
Maverick623 From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 4744 posts, RR: 6 Reply 3, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1089 times:
Quoting Springbok747 (Reply 1):
Digging a hole to help the turtle lay its eggs is "playing God"?
No. Claiming you'll let nature take it's course only when you want it to is. What makes it worse is that these people supposedly have "respect" for nature.
We are not gods, nor are we saviors of the planet and all the lesser species.
Had this turtle not been endangered, this would have been a story a 5 year old on summer vacation told his/her classmates in the fall, not a front page article on CNN.com
Quoting Fly2HMO (Reply 2): I say let Darwin do his thing and be done with it.
Survival of the fittest + keeping a natural balance.... not an artificial one. They don't ever stop to think that by helping this one turtle, they're screwing the entries species even more by hatching eggs with genes that code for a 60-70% failure rate in reproduction... and arguably being a slow swimmer.
mt99 From United States of America, joined exactly 14 years ago today! , 6354 posts, RR: 7 Reply 4, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1067 times:
Quoting Maverick623 (Reply 3): Survival of the fittest + keeping a natural balance.... not an artificial one. They don't ever stop to think that by helping this one turtle, they're screwing the entries species even more by hatching eggs with genes that code for a 60-70% failure rate in reproduction... and arguably being a slow swimmer.
So, should we kill all Pandas? They are kinda useless you know..
Maverick623 From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 4744 posts, RR: 6 Reply 5, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 1047 times:
Quoting mt99 (Reply 4): So, should we kill all Pandas? They are kinda useless you know..
Do you not understand?? We shouldn't do anything other than what we want. If we can't hack it after screwing around on a global scale, that's us not being fit enough to survive.
But we're getting off my point: It's peeves me to see people think they can overrule nature when it suits their emotions, and then back away and claim that nature can "take over".
If they truly wanted the eggs to hatch, they would incubate them all in a safe place. And if they truly wanted nature to take it's course, they would either leave them completely alone to die, or dig a hole out of personal curiosity, not claim to be working for a "greater good".
mt99 From United States of America, joined exactly 14 years ago today! , 6354 posts, RR: 7 Reply 6, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 1034 times:
Quoting Maverick623 (Reply 5): We shouldn't do anything other than what we want.
Maybe i'm missing something,, how those that relate to "we are not gods"?
dragon-wings From United States of America, joined Apr 2001, 3920 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 984 times:
The turtle in question is a Leatherback turtle, a endangered spieces and this turtle in the story is missing her rear flippers. Without the flippers she may not be able to dig a proper hole for the eggs. Without a good hole none of the eggs would survive. So if we can help out this endangered spieces what is wrong with that??
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20860 posts, RR: 55 Reply 9, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 874 times:
Humanity has forcibly dunked many species below their survivability threshold. In some cases it is possible to compensate for some of that negative offset with a positive one so the species may be able to hold out until we've repaired the worst damage to its ecosystem and it can again survive on its own.
This is simply constructive mitigation of damage we've done collectively, so I see no fault in that.
I have little sympathy for the attitude of just shrugging off the progressive impoverishment of the world around us, letting it slide towards a toxic and barren wasteland where rats and cockroaches may ultimately remain the dominant surviving species beside us. That's just not my kind of world worth looking forward to.
Maverick623 From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 4744 posts, RR: 6 Reply 10, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 820 times:
Quoting racko (Reply 8):
Humans are only supposed to kill animals as a hobby, not help them.
I see reading comprehension is lacking once again:
Quoting Maverick623 (Thread starter): I don't mind one bit that they're helping a turtle out; everyone needs a hobby.
Quoting Klaus (Reply 9): In some cases it is possible to compensate for some of that negative offset with a positive one so the species may be able to hold out until we've repaired the worst damage to its ecosystem and it can again survive on its own.
I'm not sure how helping one turtle out of hundreds in Florida helps repopulate the decimated Asian Pacific coast.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20860 posts, RR: 55 Reply 11, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 771 times:
Quoting Maverick623 (Reply 10): I'm not sure how helping one turtle out of hundreds in Florida helps repopulate the decimated Asian Pacific coast.
It's still boosting the numbers, which can in fact make or break a species which is relatively close to the brink. When it's reported, it also raises awareness which can multiply the impact.
In some cases when Species are geared for a high number of offspring to compensate for high losses, mitigating these high losses can boost the numbers relatively quickly.
RussianJet From Kazakhstan, joined Jul 2007, 6296 posts, RR: 23 Reply 12, posted (1 year 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 729 times:
This is funny. It's ok to screw around with the planet all we like, impact on other species in massively negative ways, but not ok to occasionally take steps in the other direction?? I get the point about the whole 'let nature take its course' claim but otherwise, what the hell is the problem?
Quoting Maverick623 (Reply 5): If we can't hack it after screwing around on a global scale, that's us not being fit enough to survive.
Surely 'hacking it' can also include trying to keep animals around because a) we can, and b) a lot of people think they're a good thing?
Quoting Maverick623 (Reply 3): Survival of the fittest + keeping a natural balance.... not an artificial one.
If us building all over the place and impacting on animals is a 'natural balance' then how on earth is digging a hole for a turtle any different? Grandiose claims from attention-seeking people can be annoying, and yeah - these guys haven't really done all that much in the grand scheme of things, but seriously - why are we in such a lather about this??
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