It was not meant to imply that all animals facing extinction, especially
those as a direct or indirect result of human mismangement or abuse,
are experiencing a normal process. However, the fossil record shows
a large number of species becoming extinct over periods of time
extending back to prehistoric times, certainly without human
intervention, and it can be expected that this would continue.
The collateral decline in the pace of evolution is speculative, as we
do not observe it, either because the time periods that it would require
are so long, or because it is not a correct explanation for
speciation. Therefore, we can say that the pace of extinctions is
increasing, but there is no necessary corollary that evolution has slowed,
without resorting to circular reasoning.
It may even be that life on this planet is not an open-ended process,
but has definite limits. These are things we do not yet understand,
and we should be careful of anything we do to tinker with nature. Some
of our efforts to "save" some things may be uninformed and counterproductive
to what nature requires, causing unforeseen problems later.
Several folks of native descent have asked Greenpeace's position on
native subsistence hunting. Has it changed from the unsympathetic
treatment of several years ago? I ask because we have not received
a definitive answer, and Gary mentioned your position with Greenpeace,
so I thought you might be able to clear this up.
> This is my understanding, as a layperson, and I think that the
> argument that "extinctions are natural" is dangerous, misleading,
> and needs to be countered vigorously.
I think that as someone else pointed out, the question is not whether
it is a dangerous idea to believe that species extinction occurs
naturally some of the time, but whether scientific truth should be
downplayed for fear of it being politically counterproductive.
I wish you the best and may wisdom be granted to you in
your efforts.
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Peshewegunzh
peshe%mamia.UUCP@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia.UUCP!peshe
peshe@mamia.UUCP
mthvax!mamia!peshe
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