I just feel like complaining about something that doesn't concern me in the slightest. If the globe continues to warm up at its current rate, in twenty years time the only polar bears we will see will be living in zoos. In other words, nothing will change.
Every year, thousands of Canadians and a variety of people from the northern Europe traipse up to the icy sheets and hunt seals. In my mind, they all wear T-shirts with "Club Baby Seals" and a cute sea puppy emblazoned on them. They kill seals for meat, blubber, and their pelts, because apparently seal fur is a nice material. This doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is the thousands of other people who take offense to seal clubbing for some reason.
They're mainly in the animal rights activist category. A number of them are fanatical vegans, who are at least consistent in their beliefs. However, the rest of them are just mindless drones who have had their emotions played upon by the vegans. It also helps that seals are generally considered adorable little critters. Show them a few pictures of those furry torpedoes having their skulls bashed in and they cry bloody murder.
Seals are wild animals. Before the advent of farming, humans ate wild animals. After farming was invented, we still ate animals. The only reason that people get so worked up about seal clubbing is that seals look nice. Sealing does not endanger the species. In fact, the most sought-after variety is still standing strong with a population three times that of most other seals.
I'll bet that if seals were giant arthropods with chitinous exoskeletons, no one would even care how many of them are killed. In fact, there'd probably be entire organisations promoting the extermination of such a hideous species. Meanwhile, I would be torn between suggesting awesome ways to kill these things, and trying to save them because a terrestrial arthropod the size of a dog would be pretty awesome.
Either way, I think that the people concerned in these battles are just getting a little too into it. Will it really matter if the seal population drops slightly? Will it really matter if another baby panda is born? Sure, each and every living creature is an expression of complexity, and the wonders of evolution, but the loss of one species allows another species to take its place. Things change. Great things can happen. I'm not sure what I'm saying now. I need to lie down.
I guess what I'd really like would be a way to preserve the genetic information for each and every species. That way, we could populate a habitat, Jurassic Park style. In the distant future, it would be like an extremely intricate form of gardening. Grow an ecosystem from a variety of flora and fauna. It would require intelligence, finesse, and a deep understanding of ecology. It would be Spore, but in real life.
I hope synthetic organs become a reality within my lifetime. I want to see the future.
-Joe