Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!prism!ccoprmd
From: ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: extinctions
Message-ID: <1167@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 23 Jul 89 14:23:29 GMT
References: <351@aeras.UUCP> <2983@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <23692@prls.UUCP> <1566@bucket.UUCP> <7310@bunny.GTE.COM> <24043@prls.UUCP> <1989Jul23.070623.3848@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 26

In article <1989Jul23.070623.3848@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <24043@prls.UUCP> gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) writes:
>>Every extinction, whether animal, mineral, or vegetable, hastens our own demise.
>
>Including that of the species known as "variola major"?
>Good riddance, too.  It caused smallpox.
>-- 
Three things:

(1) It is not actually extinct; I am sitting three miles from one of the 
    two places in the world the virus exists; the Centers for Disease Control,
    in Atlanta.  The other repository is in Moscow.     

(2) Henry is correct in saying that not every species that becomes extinct
    will hasten our demise; while I know full well the advantages from 
    perserving as many species as possible, I also know that each species that
    becomes extinct does not necessarily hasten our demise.  When a species
    is lost, it is more a loss of potential than anything else.

(3) Why is this in sci.space.shuttle?  

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matthew DeLuca                      :
Georgia Institute of Technology     :          [This space for rent]
ARPA: ccoprmd@hydra.gatech.edu      :
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