Word: bandicoots
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When the last pig-tailed bandicoot disappeared from Australia 80 years ago, there were no mourners. Such a muted reaction is understandable, given that the bandicoot looked like a very large rat. It’s also one of many small mammals that have gone extinct in Australia over the last two centuries...
...tailed bandicoot is noteworthy because it encapsulates the contradictions conservationists face when they rail against the extinction of plants and animals. I drew the bandicoot example from the new book titled The Future of Life by Pellegrino University Research Professor E. O. Wilson, who spoke at ARCO Forum last week about the crisis facing thousands of species of plants and animals that have been driven to the brink of extinction in part by human activity. He makes a very convincing argument that humans can save untold thousands—perhaps even millions—of species by protecting their habitats...
Even so, the question remains: is it really bad if species such as the pig-tailed bandicoot go extinct? Wilson attempts to explain the value of biodiversity, using a combination of utilitarian and purely moral arguments for saving species. Humanity, he argues, is driving straight for a cliff, and driving fast. Two hundred thousand humans are born each day, and conservative projections have the world population topping off around 10 billion late this century. With so many humans competing for rapidly-shrinking resources, both food and water are likely to become exceedingly scarce. And when animals have to compete with...
Instead of worrying about individual species, environmentalists should worry primarily about entire ecosystems. The pig-tailed bandicoot had no mourners. But the ecosystem in the entire Australian outback is the concern of millions of people. It is in our best interest to preserve large swaths of wilderness and thereby save as many species as possible. It plays to human self-interest because a diversity of species makes land and sea more productive in the long-term. Many conservation groups have been involved in drives to buy up tracts of wilderness to preserve them from rapacious corporations. Such efforts (which Wilson...
Sony sports games like NFL GameDay 2001 pleased as much as ever the niche audience that cares about such entertainments, but there was no must-have mainstream game, no equivalent of Tomb Raider or Crash Bandicoot. After a buildup worthy of a Star Wars prequel, most PlayStation 2 offerings turned out to be disappointingly middling. Some hype is impossible to live...