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From: wex@milano.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: Population control & Freedom
Message-ID: <2357@milano.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Sep-86 12:36:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: milano.2357
Posted: Tue Sep 16 12:36:52 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Sep-86 01:38:33 EDT
References: <3013@watmath.UUCP> <11700397@inmet> <15675@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: wex@milano.UUCP
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 31
Summary: species & survival

In article <15675@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, mccarthy@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (John Edward McCarthy) writes:
>  Prior to increase in human ability to destroy the environment, species
> died out at an average rate of about 2 per century.  Now it's in the
> thousands and increasing.  The arrogance inherent in your anthropocentric
> chauvinism is exceeded only by the myopia exhibited by your belief that
> human life in a world barren of ecological diversity would not be dreadfully
> impoverished.
> 		    John McCarthy

I'm not sure this is totally true.  I work with several conservation
organizations (NRDC, World Wildlife Fund, Nature Conservancy, etc.).  I seem
to recall that experts now think that 98% of all species are now extinct.
It is hard to believe figures for species extinction from the past because
the information from that time is so poor.  Most species were not even
known; how would we determine how many species died out from say 1700-1799?
There is evidence for species known today but how does that compare with the
past?

I agree with John, however, that we (mankind) are destroying species at an
incredible rate and that we will soon have real problems as the destruction
wreaked on nature begins to make itself felt in humankind.  (Some of this
can be seen in the third world today, but the developed nations are only
beginning to experience it.)


-- 
Alan Wexelblat
ARPA: WEX@MCC.ARPA or WEX@MCC.COM
UUCP: {seismo, harvard, gatech, pyramid, &c.}!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex

"All that money makes such a succulent sound."