THIS IS SO SAD! "White Yangtze Dolphin May Be Extinct"

[in_cog_ni_to]

:cry: They existed for 20 MILLION YEARS! and now they're GONE! :cry:


White Yangtze Dolphin May Be Extinct
By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - An expedition searching for a rare Yangtze River dolphin ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team's leader saying one of the world's oldest species was effectively extinct.

The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction.

A few baiji may still exist in their native Yangtze habitat in eastern China but not in sufficient numbers to breed and ward off extinction, said August Pfluger, the Swiss co-leader of the joint Chinese-foreign expedition.

"We have to accept the fact, that the Baiji is functionally extinct. We lost the race," Pfluger said in a statement released by the expedition. "It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world. We are all incredibly sad."<snip>

http://www.comcast.net/news/science/index.jsp?cat=SCIENCE&fn=/2006/12/13/540741.html&cvqh=itn_dolphin

[Deep13]

1. shit.

not again :(

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. that's so sad.

:(

[nam78_two]

3. K&R.nt

[Ezlivin]

4. The last one was sold on eBay

That may sound like awfully morbid humor, but, sadly, it's not. As species of edible fish go extinct the price fetched by the remaining fish rise exponentially. Want the last blue fin tuna? Pony up and you'll get a nice cut.

I had assumed that as we approached depletion of fish stocks we would naturally enter a period of conservation to better preserve the species. Unfortunately my calculus failed to account for the sheer greed and stupidity of man.

You'd think that Easter Island would have served as a warning, but apparently that warning will go unheeded until we replicate the example on a much larger scale.

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Sold on EBAY???? OMG...that's so sick.

:(

[9119495]

9. You might be interested

(since you mention Easter Island and the environment) in Jared Diamond's book "Collapse." It is a series of case studies in how and why societies choose or fail to succeed. But then, you may have already read it.

[Ezlivin]

16. "Collapse"? Yep, read it

Jared Diamond has some excellent books! Did you read "Guns, Germs and Steel"?

[9119495]

17. Read it? Hell I taught it.

I use excerpts from it in my high school level classes and kids that can actually read it really dig it.

I also used it in a graduate seminar I did on teaching World History.

Diamond is really quite a fascinating guy. I'm still working my way through "Collapse." Budgetary contraints made me wait for the paperback and relationship constraints and the election kept me from readign as regularly as I normally do.

[bullimiami]

6. not as sad as the mess the chinese have made of their environment.

and its only getting worse.

[thingfisher]

10. The Chinese economic miracle comes with a price!

[leftchick]

7. they were beautiful

all humans know is to kill one way or the other. :cry:

[Katzenjammer]

8. Not only won't it be the last to go, but we're up pretty soon ourselves

and all because of elite stupidity and greed.

[Selatius]

11. Hey, that's the price of progress.

Sorry to play devil's advocate, but that's what a lot of uncaring people would say, especially when it's in the name of profits and power. In the past, we've ripped down entire forests and blew open entire mountain ranges for profit. We've driven hundreds, if not thousands of species of plants and animals into extinction. Today, we continue to do the same thing. We have the power to be protectors of the planet, but we end up raping the planet instead.

[AZBlue]

12. I'm so saddened by this.

K&R

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. Maybe premature news ...

According to the article ...

"A few baiji may still exist ... in eastern China"

So maybe it's extinct, and maybe it isn't? Or maybe I don't know what "extinct" is.

If there are any left, I hope some evironment-lover finds them before the restauranteurs do.

[pinniped]

14. Well, construction of the Three Gorges Dam surely didn't help.

.

[judaspriestess]

15. all the while humans keep reproducing at a record pace

eating everything in sight and destroying the enviroment. sickening