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It is kind of a "feelsy", "stupid humans" article, but I agree with the thrust. People, in a general sense, do seem to be losing touch with the natural world and they don't seem to care. I have to say, however, I doubt that Joanna Zelman and I would agree on much else.
I once had a physician in Baltimore ask me what I did for a living. When I told him wildlife biology, he asked what that was.
How many hours of undergrad life sciences did that physician have to take again?
Unrelated, but you made me think of it... I had an orthopedic surgeon tell me that at one of his residency interviews, the "panel" asked him about his one-rep maximum bench press, then made him prove it on a bench that had been theretofore obscured by curtains. After that, he was asked to identify a number of woodworking tools on flashcards and then asked to drill a 45 degree hole in a 2" PVC pipe. I guess that WOULD weed out some people that definitely shouldn't be sawbones, but alas I digress...
There have always been stupid, heartless people. We just hear about it more.
Remember the slaughter of buffalo on the prairies, the whaling of some species to extinction, killing off birds like the passenger pigeons, dodos, and Carolina parakeets.
The upside is more people can be more easily educated these days to have respect for nature. The question is, will we?
^^^agree. There is an extraordinary documentary by National Geographic "The Great White Odyssey"
about a female shark "Nicole" who traveled over 10,000 miles to find a mate. Highly recommend watching
the story of Nicole (remarkable new evidence of a shark migrating as well the plight of our oceans
and those who inhabit them).
I once had a physician in Baltimore ask me what I did for a living. When I told him wildlife biology, he asked what that was.
You mean he asked a question such as "What is that exactly?"?
You need to lighten up, the guy was just trying to carry on a conversation and wanted to know IN MORE DETAIL what you did for a living, as if to ask what your day-to-day tasks entailed.
Do you go into the field? Do you sit behind a computer? Do you gather samples? Seriously, no one person aside from you knows exactly what it is your job entails. It's like giving someone a vague designation like "an engineer" or "a computer scientist" or "a teacher" Ok great, there are many kinds of each of those: DETAILS PLEASE for conversation's sake!
The problem I have is that we will eventually wipe out most wildlife - if we do not learn to control our own population. There will always be one segment of our population that doesn't care or relies on wildlife for food/sport. Can we lock everybody up that are hungry? If we could control our population there would be fewer examples of 'stupidity' or sheer ignorance.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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The best way to conserve fish, wildlife and their habitat is to lobby strongly for public ownership of wildlife, no introduced species and regulated hunting and fishing.
That is the case in much of North America, and the system has worked well since advocates like Teddy Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold championed it in the early 20th century. The biggest issues are when industrial resource interests are allowed to impact that habitat although that is slowly being recognized as a hindrance to wildlife.
As one wildlife biologist put it to me, "if the critters ain't got a bedroom to sleep or "procreate" in (he used a much more vernacular expression) or a kitchen to eat in, they ain't going to be around."
That pretty well puts it very succinctly, doesn't it?
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