Do we need animals?

What will our world be like when 1/3 of all of the other species on our planet are extinct? Does anyone worry about the web of life and the interdependency of all species? In 5th grade, students learn about food webs and the delicate balance between species and natural resources. And yet, we adults, lack the political will to create policies that allow us to live harmoniously on this planet and balance our needs with the needs of mother nature. Here is the article that discusses the impact this biological disaster in the making.

The CNN Special: Planet in Peril

Graph Source: BBN News

We watched the CNN special. The part that tore me up the most was the part about the animals that were being sold to China... I read China Inc. and am convinced that most Americans are unaware of the significance of China's growth and what it will mean to the planet. I think of Ross Perot's famous words about NAFTA, "You will hear a giant sucking noise of all the jobs leaving this country for Mexico." He was only partly correct. The jobs went to Mexico briefly and then moved on to the Pacific Rim.

As far as this planet is concerned, there is now a huge vacuum that will not only suck all the jobs out of North America, but also will drag along with it many of the species that live on this planet. The Chinese will eat anything and everything. There are a lot of hungry people who live in China who are just beginning to experience a higher standard of living instead the poverty they have known for centuries.

There is a saying China that goes something like this," If faced with the decision about whether or not to eat the last tiger on earth you should share it with my friends and family..”

There will be a giant sucking noise of the earth's species going extinct as they are hunted and sold to the Chinese market for food. As of today, Google reports that the population of China is 1,321,851,888. The US population is 301,139,947.

Let’s look at the numbers again: 300 million vs. 1.3 billion people.
Where do you think they are going to find food for all of these people?

That’s the part that I found the most disturbing about Anderson Cooper’s report on the planet Earth.

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A world with no tigers

Tiger in Bushes, originally uploaded by babasteve.

Reuters reported that tigers are on the path to extinction. "The world's wild tigers are on a "catastrophic" path to extinction as numbers continue to decline because of increased poaching, habitat destruction and poor conservation efforts by governments, a new report has said." Can you imagine a world with no tigers? There is no where for these creatures to live...