The last Javan rhino in Vietnam, it is reported, is dead. Killed by poachers and the horn cut off.
According to Wikipedia, and contrary to popular belief, the horn is not used as an aphrodisiac. Rather, it is used for treating fevers and convulsions. Although there is no serious science to back it up. So a beautiful animal - and the last in its location - has been killed to be used to provide a remedy that is not known to work. It doesn't really give me hope for the future of all life-kind.
Meanwhile, and only tenuously related, the test for a climate-change fix has been put on hold. The plan is to spray sulphates into the sky, in the belief that it will reflect the sun's rays back into space. Apparently the aim is to reduce the temperature by 2K.
You know we'do cock it up, don't you. When did science ever work wide-scale first time? Look at the invention of CFCs. We'd cock it up and acidify the oceans, or it'd all go runaway the other way and we'd be heading for a new Ice Age so we'd have to burn more CO2. And then that would overdo it and it'd get too hot again. So we'd spray some more sulphate up there and chuck a load of lime in the sea...
I don't know, we think we can sort out the temperature of the earth and we can't even protect one blooming rhino. What chance do we think we have?
Poor rhino. Poor ethics. Poor humanity.
ReplyDeleteGetting people to accept that there actually is climate change going on might have more impact, it would seem that our vanishing Arctic isn't evidence enough for some.
ReplyDeleteActually Steve, I think most people in theory accept it. They don't relate it too well, however, to their other theory that "growth" is always good. Or their need for an even bigger telly.
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