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Originally Posted by james t kirk
You trust very easily.
See, I have been working in the big bad real world for 20 years. I can assure you that everything that happens happens for one reason and one reason only.
money.
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I'm sitting in a library...because I work in a library, which, by the by, isn't just a safe haven for starry-eyed, college-age idealists and damn, dirty hippies. Of course, money makes the world go round and I'm sure it's doing its part to keep the IWC chugging along; I never suggested otherwise, but if we were to write off the notion of doing..well, anything simply because someone might make a buck off it, then I imagine we'd all probably still be hanging out in caves eating grubs. Then again, you've got 20 years experience in the 'big, bad, real world' so, what the fuck all do I know?
I don't know much about whaling, but if 30 some odd countries think it might be a good idea to start hunting whales again, then maybe it might be a good idea to start hunting whales again. The idea here seems to be conservation. If culling the whale herd responsibly serves as a catalyst to bring illegal whaling into line, and works to serve as compromise between the whaling industry and the conservationists, then kudos to the IWC.
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....killing a species that is intelligent, capable of thought, capable of communication between members, and is gentle and beautiful.
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Gentle and beautiful? Sure, but how are whales any different from any other species that exhibit similar characteristics? Species, I might add, that we seem to have no problem eating and working in the fields.
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Originally Posted by BigBen
Of course, that would take effort and money to save an ugly animal. Not as sexy as whales.
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Exactly. Here's a
list of extinct animals (well, a list of lists...) from wikipedia that have gone missing under our stewardship. Well, just over the last 500 years or so...not too much on record before that. I guess we couldn't be bothered.
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Originally Posted by BigBen
Oh, and to all those posters who say that healthy populations should be open for hunting, I ask this: What about over-population? In that case, there should be an open season on humans... Killing a few billion of us would help the environment more than saving whales. Or any other endangered species.
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I think we do a pretty good job of culling the herd ourselves without setting a date for open season. In any event, that presumes that humans and animals should be subject to the same rules.