Why do people care about endangered species?

Question

If the animals aren't smart enough to survive, then doesn't that mean they are supposed to go extinct? Why do these goddamn tree huggers always have to mess with nature?

99% of all species that have ever lived are now extinct. Within billions of years, 100% of all species that have ever lived will be extinct. So what's the point of all this whining and "save the whales" bs?

Answer 1

Tree huggers, don't mess with nature. Tree huggers try to limit the messing done by man on his environment. That means planting lots of trees. Clue is in the name:tree huggers. Lots and lots of trees, have to be planted.

Tree huggers dislike people concreting over everything because it stops the trees from drinking, and storing water and sequestering carbon and maintaining root associates, and offering shade and protection and aerosol for other trees and acting as a group as a lake to provide a micro climate and stabilizing water management to prevent flooding. And providing a valuable yield and being a habit and part of a complex system that supports man. And providing shelter and wind break and enriching the eco system for fauna and flora by leaf mulch and wood litter. And providing a yield for man.

Seriously: Man has done the damage we have a responsibility to ourselves and future generations to clean up the messes we are making. If we keep messing around in eco-systems that we really do not know much about then we are fools. How many of those species would be endangered if it was not by our recent actions?

Answer 2

Yes..extinction will take place for ALL life on the planet eventually...this is a perfectly normal process...HOWEVER, we (humans) have sped up the process to an alarming rate.  We are now altering natures normal course without really having any clue as to the damages we are causing to the ecosystem.  We can very well be wiping out the cure for cancer, AIDS, etc. by killing off  plants and animals that we have not even discovered yet.  Each and every species holds a unique niche in the ecosystem and by us wiping them out before their time may cause catastrophic affects to the entire planet.

Answer 3

“Human alteration of the global environment has triggered the sixth major extinction event in the history of life and caused widespread changes in the global distribution of organisms. These changes in biodiversity alter ecosystem processes and change the resilience of ecosystems to environmental change.

….The large ecological and societal consequences of changing biodiversity should be minimized to preserve options for future solutions to global environmental problems.”

Chapin et al. Nature 405: 234

“The human population and its consumption profoundly

affect the Earth’s ecosystems. …Human appropriation of

net primary production, apart from leaving less for other

species to use, alters the composition of the atmosphere,

levels of biodiversity, energy flows within food webs and

the provision of important ecosystem processes.”

Imhoff et al. Nature 429: 870

Basically, what I'm saying is that these animals that are becoming extinct are dying out because of humans and these animals contribute an essential service to the environment such as water regulation, climate regulation, nutrient cycling and many, many others.  

Billions of years ago, humans didn't exist.  Humans have been the only animal to dramatically change their surroundings like no any other animal past or present.

So since, endangered species have the largest potential to become extinct, I think we should care about these species and do all in our power to prevent them from becoming extinct.

Answer 4

Because God gave us dominion over the animals, so that also means we are responsible for them.

Answer 5

Well, you don't seem all that highly evolved to me.  How are you still surviving?  Obviously someone cared enough to care for you.

Same difference.

Answer 6

In most ways, an animal's natural instinct to survive is superior to our own. The fact that an animal can't just pack up and move when humans invade their territory does not make them ill-equipped to survive.

True, every species will either adapt, evolve, or become extinct; and that will happen with or without human interference--butI don't agree that we shouldn't bother to care. The balance of nature is a wonderful thing.

Answer 7

So... how would you feel if i came round to your house and first removed all the food from it and stole all your money. Then some time later decided i liked where your house was and burned it down to put up a highrise. Then sometime later i decided that your clothes looked rather nice, gave you a good kicking, robbed you of said clothes and left you on the sidewalk to die... oh and nobody else cared, just walked on by thinking, 'that's your tough luck'... It's not that animals go extinct. It's the fact that we (a supposedly intelligent animal) go around doing exactly what i've described to every other animal on the planet... and incidently to plenty of other human cultures too... it's not tree huggers messing with nature... it's everybody spending money in the wrong places that's the real cause of the global devistation we are witnessing.

Answer 8

who is messing with Nature ??

Civilization is .urbanization exchanging leaves for concrete and Tar

Agriculture with overgrazing ,,overpumping and chemicals

industry with polution

And people with cars and fires

Listen to Pythagorus

3000 species of animals have become exstinct during the last 50 years

mostly related to lost of Habitat and climate changes affecting microbes

we are witness to the first mass exstintion since the dinosaurs

and we are principly to blame

Pan is very angry

you dont seem to realise that we live in balanced interdependant Eco Systems

everything is interrelated.

the biggest changes are happening at microscopic levels

which will in turn affects everything that follows,

for example when the bees have gone ,(all of them ) we will follow them shortly

Animals and insects all have functions with in the Eco systems ,to plant quantity and quality control ,polinate,reproduce,etc.



when all the insects are exstinct the animals will be the next to go (if not at the same time)

And so will we be

the existing Eco systems took millions of years to be fine tuned and to archieve their Equilibriums .

If one kills all the frogs for example we will have plagues of mosquitos ,

But kill all the mosquitos and all of the fauna in the forests will disapear (as happened on the banks of the Danube)

Kill all the birds and plagues of caterpillars will eat all our crops

No bees no polination for many things

Natural unbalance is now happening at micro biotic levels which soon will be noticed in our dimensions

Humanity cannot survive for long in Isolation of Nature

and the flora needs the fauna ,and we need the plants and the soil,(trees and plants  make soil),and the water (trees make water )and we need good air (trees filter it for us )

And trees need insects for polination and fertilizer from their sugars they also need animals to reproduce(squirells and birds plant seeds)

everything needs everything else for survival

Apart from that

it is only in the last century that Man has managed to damage nature almost beyond repair, if the same damaging factors are not relented, instead of increased.

And apart from that ,why should we deny the next generations of knowing the Environment with its inhabitants ???

What gives us the right to s***w it all up ,more than any other specie in the history of the planet .

If you cannot understand that you will have to be reclassified as an Enemy of the Planet

And they will become Targets in the Green War, the treehuggers are planning,at the coming of the Pagan Dawn

Answer 9

Most people care about endangered species because if we're destroying their habitat, we're destroying their food sources, we're destroying them, and they can't speak up for themselves who's going to?

I see your point about most species dying out but the difference, as I stated above, is that we're destroying their habitat, we're destroying their food sources, and we're destroying them.  Back then, we didn't have all of the garbage going into the air or all of the land clearing that goes on today.

As a goog friend of mine told me: "If we don't save the world today, who will save it tomarrow?"

Answer 10

Because we care for our children, we care for humankind.

We still care to see these species in "ALIVE" condition, not in mere pictures alone.

Let us also give due respect to these animals which were created along with mankind and that must always remind ourselves that the earth is not ours alone.

Answer 11

Well, from a self interested point of view, the current, unprecedented rate of species die off may well be symptomatic of progressive destabilization of the ecosystem, caused by the exponential increase in human population and industrial activity.  

The ecosystem being ultimately chaotic in nature, such destabilization, carried far enough, will likely, at some point, rapidly degrade it, in terms of its ability to support human agriculture and human habitation in general.  

We should therefore have concern for the welfare of the various animal species around us, because our own survival depends on the stability of the same ecosystem that supports them.

From an aesthetic point of view, I think a few tigers are worth literally millions of useless ******* like yourself.

Have a nice day.

Answer 12

Certain species are beneficial to the eco-system and others are just wonders of nature which enhance the environment in which we live. While many are becoming extinct, many are also being discovered. Some fear the extinction of certain species will upset the balance of our eco-system, impacting perhaps the well being of our children and grand children. Much of this is speculation and hypothesis, but based on what certain species contribute today, one could hypothesize their absence would have a negative impact on the earth.

Answer 13

You are right, many species that used to exist, no longer do.  But, humans do not have to hurry the process of extinction along.  Let natural selection do its thing.

Answer 14

No harm done until they star fudging numbers and inventing rare species to get some enviromental foolishness in place.