**** humanity

[Pharrell Williams]

All hail king Neptune and his water breathers
No snail thing to quick for his water feeders

i mean good song but why is this your new thing

 

[tarheelhockey]

Sure I will. Advocating (more) for the abolition of zoos, and more importantly, the preservation of the Amazon rainforest would be a start. In remembrance of her.

And what do you think is the main vehicle for educating the public about preserving fragile ecosystems?

Hint: z _ _ s

 

[Hippasus]

And what do you think is the main vehicle for educating the public about preserving fragile ecosystems?

Hint: z _ _ s

You think that's working when the Amazon is continually losing significant percentages of the 1970 level of forest cover on an annual basis? Check out the change in percentages over each year. 16.4 percentage loss since 1970. Average per year is 0.36% a year. Latest percentage loss is 0.2%. I don't think it's working. Letting the animals out in the cities would have a higher likelihood of a positive learning experience for humanity. It sounds like a joke, but it's probably true. The Amazon is a huge source of biodiversity and is integral to the water cycle across the globe. Otherwise desertification could drastically increase, but I think there is a lot of indeterminacy in the modeling of such scenarios. We, in our interconnected global societies are clearly mired in influences beyond education of different animals that exist on this planet. It is surely in part a matter of status quo business interests.

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html

 

[Archangel]

Rio is going to be ****ED

 

[Chris Hagen*]

And what do you think is the main vehicle for educating the public about preserving fragile ecosystems?

Hint: z _ _ s

You're not actually stupid enough to think this is true, are you?

 

[Bones Malone]

The female jaguar escaped its handlers after the ceremony on Monday and attacked a soldier, a spokesman said.
Four tranquiliser darts failed to stop it and a soldier shot it with a pistol.

I would've shot it too. Killing as a means of survival is acceptable. You said it yourself Chris.

 

[McDrailers]

100% disneys fault. Jaguar shouldn't have been in the water with gun using alligators. Where were momma and poppa jag?

 

[tarheelhockey]

You think that's working when the Amazon is continually losing significant percentages of the 1970 level of forest cover on an annual basis?

That's a pretty limited frame through which to view the effectiveness of ecological education as an entire field of study.

Nevertheless, a 2-minute Google search found these zoo-based Amazon conservation programs;

http://detroitzoo.org/support/give/adopt-a-school/
http://www.amazonrainforestnews.com/2011/03/san-diego-zoo-global-joins-effort-to.html?m=1
https://dialogo-americas.com/en/art...oo-provides-safe-haven-rescued-amazon-animals

I'm sure there are plenty of others that can be found with a deeper search... the National Zoo at the Smithsonian has a big Amazon exhibit that undoubtedly includes a conservation element.

Also, if you shut down the zoos, where do you train the zoologists and wildlife veterinarians and botanists and conservation scientists? A university certainly can't teach a vet how to administer medicine to a giraffe. Take away the zoos, and the only training ground for giraffe care will be African national parks. The sorts of places where rangers get gunned down by poachers, places that can't be visited without international flights, visas, vaccines, guides, tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs. Do you believe that conservation programs won't wither away if that sort of cost is associated with even the basics of entering the profession?

That's to say nothing of the fact that the general public couldn't care less about conserving places that are just abstractions in a textbook. How many kids would actually want to BE a zoologist and work with those giraffes, if they have never actually laid eyes on one?

Likewise, note how many people care about preserving the ecology of places that DON'T get popular zoo exposure. There's a reason people know and care so much about the Amazon. Every zoo has a rainforest exhibit with a bunch of info about the importance of conservation. 99% of people's understanding of what a rainforest actually looks and sounds like in real life is based on those simulated exhibits. How else are they supposed to "get it"? Watching documentaries?

You're not actually stupid enough to think this is true, are you?

No, I'm educated enough to know it's true. You could convince me otherwise, though. Just point me toward the public institution that has a greater impact on public awareness and on-the-ground support of conservation.

 

[PaGEEsBack]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36593573

I'm really the first one posting this? Disgusting.

 

[PaGEEsBack]

All hail king Neptune and his water breathers
No snail thing to quick for his water feeders

Very nice lyrical reference. 8/10 goes to you.

 

[Hippasus]

That's a pretty limited frame through which to view the effectiveness of ecological education as an entire field of study.

Nevertheless, a 2-minute Google search found these zoo-based Amazon conservation programs;

http://detroitzoo.org/support/give/adopt-a-school/
http://www.amazonrainforestnews.com/2011/03/san-diego-zoo-global-joins-effort-to.html?m=1
https://dialogo-americas.com/en/art...oo-provides-safe-haven-rescued-amazon-animals

I'm sure there are plenty of others that can be found with a deeper search... the National Zoo at the Smithsonian has a big Amazon exhibit that undoubtedly includes a conservation element.

Also, if you shut down the zoos, where do you train the zoologists and wildlife veterinarians and botanists and conservation scientists? A university certainly can't teach a vet how to administer medicine to a giraffe. Take away the zoos, and the only training ground for giraffe care will be African national parks. The sorts of places where rangers get gunned down by poachers, places that can't be visited without international flights, visas, vaccines, guides, tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs. Do you believe that conservation programs won't wither away if that sort of cost is associated with even the basics of entering the profession?

That's to say nothing of the fact that the general public couldn't care less about conserving places that are just abstractions in a textbook. How many kids would actually want to BE a zoologist and work with those giraffes, if they have never actually laid eyes on one?

Likewise, note how many people care about preserving the ecology of places that DON'T get popular zoo exposure. There's a reason people know and care so much about the Amazon. Every zoo has a rainforest exhibit with a bunch of info about the importance of conservation. 99% of people's understanding of what a rainforest actually looks and sounds like in real life is based on those simulated exhibits. How else are they supposed to "get it"? Watching documentaries?



No, I'm educated enough to know it's true. You could convince me otherwise, though. Just point me toward the public institution that has a greater impact on public awareness and on-the-ground support of conservation.

No zoos were required for the argument I gave on needing to preserve the Amazon.

Those conservation programs don't need to go through zoos.

It's more about activism through professional organizations, or one's own grassroots initiatives. I tend to think local first, but when it comes to the Amazon, that needs to get bumped up to a higher priority.

Yes, documentaries of all types are great and I think more people should watch them. They're probably my favorite type of film these days.

 

[tarheelhockey]

No zoos were required for the argument I gave on needing to preserve the Amazon.

Those conservation programs don't need to go through zoos.

Where else do you propose they go through? What other organization has the funding, stability, credibility, cultural relevance, visibility, and reach of the international network of zoos and aquariums?

I tend to think local first

This brings to mind an example that's local to me. The red wolf was once prolific throughout the southeastern US, but was hunted into extinction in the wild. What few of them were left were placed in zoos for conservation and breeding. The NC Zoo was one of those which maintained a small colony and bred them up to a sustainable number, with a couple on display for public awareness purposes.

Today, you can go to the Alligator River wildlife refuge in eastern NC and listen to the wild red wolves howl at night. Those wolves exist because the affiliated zoos bred enough of them to enable a release into the refuge. If not for them, the red wolf would have been extinct decades ago.

The only reason I'm even able to relate that story is because the NC Zoo continues to display a couple of wolves and tell their story. That, in my direct experience, is an important example of a zoo performing serious and impactful conservation work AND providing a vehicle for educating the public about it so that those efforts don't go to waste.

 

[Hippasus]

Where else do you propose they go through? What other organization has the funding, stability, credibility, cultural relevance, visibility, and reach of the international network of zoos and aquariums?



This brings to mind an example that's local to me. The red wolf was once prolific throughout the southeastern US, but was hunted into extinction in the wild. What few of them were left were placed in zoos for conservation and breeding. The NC Zoo was one of those which maintained a small colony and bred them up to a sustainable number, with a couple on display for public awareness purposes.

Today, you can go to the Alligator River wildlife refuge in eastern NC and listen to the wild red wolves howl at night. Those wolves exist because the affiliated zoos bred enough of them to enable a release into the refuge. If not for them, the red wolf would have been extinct decades ago.

The only reason I'm even able to relate that story is because the NC Zoo continues to display a couple of wolves and tell their story. That, in my direct experience, is an important example of a zoo performing serious and impactful conservation work AND providing a vehicle for educating the public about it so that those efforts don't go to waste.

I pointed out that conservation efforts often don't go through zoos, and thus zoos don't need to be around for these conservation efforts to occur. I think it's more about activism through professional organizations, or one's own grassroots initiatives these days. Just because zoos have historically been educators on such matters as conservation doesn't mean they always have to be around for the sake of such efforts or anything. I should be asking you to substantiate that conservation efforts through professional organizations and grassroots initiatives would be insufficient.

Regarding your red wolf example: Our role as incubators for endangered species is a costly endeavor and should, perhaps, be phased-out as well. Where does it end, and who are we to determine which species should continue to exist? At a certain point nature has to take its course, and it is better for us to focus on being social beings living in balance with the rest of the living and non-living Earth. Resources would be better spent on things like R&D for living in smaller-scale economic arrangements.

Zoos, to some degree, are a bandaid solution covering up a deeper reality of us living out of balance with nature as a society.

 

[tarheelhockey]

If you don't think bringing species back from the brink of extinction is worth paying for, then I think we have a fundamental disagreement on this topic which isn't going to get bridged.