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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (7543)	3/6/2001 12:08:40 AM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I think I understand where you are coming from - it just really bothers me. I don't understand not being circumspect and taking such a cavalier attitude about extinctions. There is little justification for the self-centered view of humanity that you and others are expressing. It is an archaic, consumption-based viewpoint that lacks any sense of humility or respect for the future (and past) generations. You might be sorry that the species bearing the cure to cancer was wiped out in an Indonesian gold mining operation. Or your kids might. Those assets aren't just yours or the Indonesians, IMO.

To: TimF who wrote (7543)	3/6/2001 12:47:19 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

If I could only save one I would save the life of an innocent child before I would save a tiger. I would resist the notion that the tiger would have as much importance or the same rights as the child. Of course the child is more important to you than the tiger. That's not because people are more important than tigers, in any abstract sense. It's because you happen to be a person. "Importance" is a concept that can only exist as a matter of perception. Nothing can be "more important" than anything else unless some entity is ranking their importance. Different entities, of course, have different scales of importance. None of those scales have any significance beyond the perspective of the entity doing the ranking. If you really think that people are "more important than" other parts of the biosphere, I would have to ask to whom - other than people - they are important?