Paranormal
The course of evolution on this planet has brought us to a point where we can begin to see signs of an hierarchical dominion of power, with us humans at the very top of this diagram. We, as a whole, wield more collective power than any other species on the planet. It's us who's in charge, and it's us who can approve or deny the existence of, among other things, animals.
While this sounds like a tyrranical situation, it gives you an idea of the capabilities we do possess, and opens up doors to the endless possibilities that can be. Right now though, I'd like to concentrate on the animals, and why they'll never make it.
We are all aware of Charles Darwin's basic theory of the Survival of the Fittest. It may have been true in the past, but this alone cannot account for survival of some of the species today. There are several other factors involved. The advent of the Industrial and Technological Ages upon humans has had a very profound effect upon the animals we live with. The chemicals we use, the refuse that we dump into the oceans, the pollution we emit, all of these are killing the animals around us. We are advancing at a rate that is too fast for the other species to keep up with.
And so, since everything is intricately linked to everything else in nature, we are currently in the middle of a period of mass extinction, an unprecedented one, that is greater than the one that eliminated the dinosaurs. Every day, on average, we lose about seventy species of animals.
Hardly 5% of the surface of the Earth is free of human presence, and this implies that the future of a species depends upon how well it adopts to human lifestyle and advances. They need to breed on our golf courses, live in our buildings, eat out of our trash cans and travel by highway. Natural Selection has now been complemented by Human Selection, and this is evident if you go to any large city today. The rats in the buildings and sewers, the cockroaches in our homes, the cats and the dogs in the streets and the crow are all testament to this fact.
Every time another highway is laid out, a forest cleared, a dam constructed, or a power plant built, human selection is at work. We may or may not realize it, but we are constantly deciding which species stay, and which ones go.
The animal with the best survival skills in this maddening chaos is a relatively new "species" - the pet. It has learned to be a friend, a family member, a political entity (we speak of its "rights") and above all, a consumer, which would explain the $17 billion annual expenditure by pet owners in the USA. All-in-all, their future is more secure than that of many human populations.
But pets are very few in variety. Not all animals can be pets. Most lack the necessary social skills and timidity. But an animal can still find a niche in the human jungle if it can arouse our pity and get our attention.
Of course, we humans are a friendly species. We feel bad when we hear that the Giant Panda is dying out. We don't want the majestic tiger, the cute chimpanzee or the impressive elephant to disappear. But does anyone even give a fleeting thought towards the lizards, snakes, frogs and insects? These are dying out faster than the animals we adore. In fact, the animals mentioned above, that we find appealing, are but a small minority in the animal kingdom. Yet they get all our attention. Truth is, we simply don't like the lizards, the snakes, the frogs and the insects. Their looks don't appeal to us. An animal's chances in the human jungle are slim if humans don't like its looks. And so we won't be having any sleepless nights when the lizards, the snakes, the frogs and the insects, (these vile, repulsive creatures) disappear off the face of the earth. And hardly anyone realizing what the implications of that would be.
As another example, by some estimates, a third of the species that inhabit the oceans is now endangered (since it's the final resting place for most of our filth). All of these animals play a big part in the delicate underwater ecosystem, but none of them capture the human imagination like the whale. And as a result, while the other species choke on garbage and fade out from our collective memory, the whales get to star in movies and win the valuable endorsement of environmental organizations and swim in emptier oceans. The whales are wondering where all the food went, since the ecological balance has been broken, and they leave us wondering why these magnificent creatures are still dying out.
The dormouse and the black rat are both rodents, both residents of the UK, and both endangered-but that's where the similarities end. The dormouse is cute. So cute, in fact, that it has its own public awareness program (National Dormouse Week). The black rat, meanwhile is ugly. In the human mind, it is associated with disease and any number of primal fears. At present, there are active campaigns to eliminate it from its last outposts in the UK.
This is known as "Survival of the Cutest." Only those animals that appeal, are saved, while the rest can go. The implications of this being that we end up protecting the wrong species.
What's more, for a species today, there's one thing worse than being ugly, and that's being invisible. In the last few houndred years, scientists have classified 1.5 million different species. Anywhere from 10 to 100 million more remain to be discovered, decribed and understood. Many of them live in the world's rain forest which humans are leveling at a rapid rate, which means that we sill destroy them before we can even meet them. One must keep in mind that it is these animals that are also a large part of our ecosystem, holding many things together. We may not see them disappear, but we will feel the effects. Some day.
Natural selection promotes the diversity of life. Human selection promotes parking lots. Human selection is a testament to our values, our prejudices, and above all, our ignorance about other forms of life. It is but natural for our minds to work this way, as it has been doing for the past million years or so. This is why we have Survival of the Cutest, and it is the same reason we have racism.
Animal rights activists aren't helping at all. In fact, they are making things worse by promoting awareness of the wrong species. Sure, by losing the cute ones we may not have appealing zoos anymore, and there may be less Disney movies, but their impact on the environment in the long run is not much when compared to the disappearance of an insect. When these insects disappear, we can lose our vegetation. When we lose our vegetation and crops, what are we going to eat? Laptops?
What's more, they often instill this into minds at a young age by spreading the same awareness in schools, a time when a kid is most easily influenced. Teachers fail to see this too, and open the doors to these presentations out of their best intentions, trying to be environment friendly, not realizing what they are doing: feeding them the wrong thoughts.
As a result of this, kids today are against laboratory testing of animals. But then, in order to save ourselves in the long run, animal testing is often necessary. This of course, brings up the question: If a hundred mice die due to testing, the end result of which a hundred million humans are saved, is it worth it? Probably not... nobody wants overpopulation! Is it worth saving the Panda and the Bonobo Monkey? Probably not... pandas can't pollinate flowers!
Some speak of "equal rights" for animals, and when a whale gets beached, they make efforts to save it. Yet the unwanted animals can be conveniently ignored. In my opinion, this is a manifestation of the Survival of the Cutest phenomenon I mentioned above, and evidence of hypocrisy. Just about every country's list of Endangered Species (if the country has one) features some of the famous animals, the cuddly animals, the appealing animals on its list. You won't find a fly or a wasp there.
Frogs all over the world are dying. Just suddenly dying. No specific reason has been attributed to it, and so it could be pollution, the ozone layer's hole, acid rain, fungus, disease, or what not. Soon, the frogs will all be gone. The point here is that this could be a signal of something, if anyone would bother to check.
The animals we don't care about are going to die off. The animals we do care about will die off as well. We are going to die off as well. It's only a matter of time. And this time can depend upon us if we take care of the right things. We could save the right animals, and allow for lab-testing for the sake of our own species. A little bit of both the sides.
It would be good if the animal rights activists were made aware themselves (ironic, isn't it?), but the truth is that this flaw in our thinking, just like religion and racism, can never be eliminated. Because it is natural for us to think this way. Just like it is natural for us to have reached this point in advancement of our civilization, leaving such destruction in our path. Whatever we can do to save it will be worth it of course, to add a couple more years to the simply delay the inevitable. That is why these efforts are indeed commendable. Every little bit makes it worth it, only if it were in the right direction. Naturally, it is not.
And naturally... the end shall come.
