Why an Alternative is essential!
On June 24, 2012 in In the Galapagos archipelago, birthplace of Charles Darwin theory of evolution, Lonesome George took his final breath. This giant Pinta Island tortoise two meters long and 500 kg was the last surviving member of his family.
When the Spanish stepped on this island in the 16th century, the tortoise were over 250 000.
The extinction of the Galapagos turtles – They where on Earth for more than 10 million years. Homo sapiens just 200 000 years – we caused their extinction. This is 2% of the time.
The question is not are we going to learn from this, the question is which species will be next?
Perhaps it will be the leatherback turtle.
Which existed for 100 million years. They are more than 2 meter long, more than one meter wide and weigh up to a ton.
They are able to swim to depths of 1.1 kilometers – over 3 times deeper than a nuclear submarine. Their population declined with 90% since 1980.
The turtles are threatened by all the ranges of economic activities, dictated by the profit motive.
- Industrial fishing methods – such as gillnet, trawl, and long line fishing, trap them as unwanted by catch. Each year more than 50 000 leatherback turtle.
- Black market- growth in world trade, highly profitable black market developed. In Costa Rica one egg is 1$ but in the black market it is 200 to 300$
- Electric light – Confuses the turtles navigation
- The plastic pollution
Our actions are changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere, acidification of the ocean, contaminating soil, the water, the air and organisms worldwide with toxic chemicals; Altering the land through deforestation or vast areas tropical and boreal forest; and warming the entire planet.
Once we wipe out individual species, now we threaten the biota.
Biota is the vegetation that covers the soil, the animals that live upon the soil, and the soil microorganisms that inhabit the soil. … This soil formation factor is intimately influenced by climate and changes over time.
The Leatherback are threatened with extinction by an economic and social system that is based on relentless (no mercy) profit-driven expansion that promotes industrial fishing methods, chemical pollution, and egg harvesting for the black market.
The Leatherbacks are eating jellyfish, and by doing this they are controlling the population. Without this control the jellyfish number is growing and they eat more and more fish eggs.
Which raises the question: How can we save these magnificent wild animals by extension and then humans?
Summary of the book “How to create an Ecological Society”.