Gia we Worship Yee

Fire of Liberty
Jackson Kuhl has a good article over a Tech Central Station that points out how folks who have elevated their enviromental activism to the level of a religion can take things too far. In this case, several scientist have proposed a policy in which they would transplant various animals like elephants, cheetahs, antelope and various other animals into the North American Great Plains in an effort to revive various species of animals that have been extinct since the Pleistocene period some 12,000 years ago. Its rather ironic if you think about it, that in their ferver to restore animals similar or remotely related to the mammoths, mastadons or cheetahs that have been extinct for some twelve millennia, these scientists would be endangering or even eliminating the weaker species that currently live in the region. So I guess they are so devoted to saving a dead species that they're willing to destroy another. Well such is true with a lot of environmentalists who are more than willing to impose environmental restrictions or solutions but are not willing to place them in their backyard much like the Kennedys and Cronkites are for wind farms turbines but don't want them some 15 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Hyannisport or Martha's Vineyard because it might obscure their view. I guess they never see the irony in the whole matter.

While these scientists might think their going to re-introduce such animals into the North American continent but they won't actually be introducing them to the wild but will be housing on a wildlife sanctuary. So what they're proposing is just another big zoo with animals from Africa in it, sounds like Wild Adventures without the rollercoasters. Another thing that they need to be wary about is reintroducing animals like these to the climate of the Great Plains were it gets pretty darn cold in the winters compared to the hot jungles and plains of sub-Sahara Africa. Has anyone ever seen pictures of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana or Colorado in the Winter. If these scientist took animals who are used to hot weather almost year round and put them in the climate of the Great Plains, they are just asking for more animals to die from the cold winters. All you've got to do is read David Laskin's The Children's Blizzard to understand how terribly cold this region can get in the winter. If people cannot master their way through the cold and they had the proper clothing, how in the world are animals unaccustomed to the severe weather are going to fare. Can anyone say elephant or cheetah sickel? (Unless their trying some sick re-enactment of the Ice Age to see how the cold weather affected the mammoths or mastadons but then again they had a shaggy coat that the elephants won't have. It's a quirky thought but who knows?)

I'm all for people taking care of the environment and preserving animal species but sometimes people can take some things rather too far. Seems to me that this idea needs a rewrite.