oil spill rant

[Prettiest Frog]

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I think you have that very backwards, unfortunately.

 

[Msbear]

I wonder if it's our decision to make wether we or the animals are more important. I would agree with you by saying humans are as I am one. But, I would guess a sea turtle would disagree.

The thing is opinions of other species are irrelevant in this world we are steadily taking over. And, it seems, we are now invading this "final frontier" of oceans and landscape once ruled by animals. Not only do we consume its resources but we spew and pillage as we burn through it. I cannot help but feel guilty for that.

Melissa, thanks so much for the pics. That really puts things in perspective... talk about monsters!

eta: I don't want anyone to think I am undermining those human lives which were lost. It's just that they were being paid every week to take a risk as every man and woman does each day in America. I do feel for them but, my rant is for those whom are helpless and whom, I feel, are being exploited.

 

[Q9]

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I think you have that very backwards, unfortunately.

I think you need to get your priorities straight. Humans matter vastly more than mere animals. GET OVER IT. The Bible is quite clear that humanity is to rule the Earth. Not abuse, mind you, but tend it and USE it. Darwin says "survival of the fittest." Here's a shocker for you: Humans are the fittest. The oil spill was an accident. Should we stop drilling for oil to save some freaking birds that nobody will miss? Are we supposed to go back to cave life so that the "exploited" animals will be free to... exist without people?

Animals have NO rights. Do I think we should care about the creatures? Yes. After all, stewardship implies, in fact requires, keeping the value around for future generations, which includes natural beauty and wildlife. But priorities, overall, should be on benefits for humans. I hate that the spill happened, I really do. But my pity goes primarily to the men who lost their lives and their families, second to those that lost their jobs, and last to the critters.

 

[patnjess]

hmmm quoting Darwin with the Bible, funny.
but seriously humans are more important, the men unfortunatly are dead. Nothing can be done about that, but the environment is a different story. Everything is in a delicate cycle and believe me I'm worried for my children! You dont think this will affect humanity, losing all those precious critters, pulluting the environment in such away? Who knows how this is going to affect us besides the economy, will affect rainfall, from messed up evaporation, who knows, no one knows~

But not caring that is just ignorant and unreal, thinking those critters have no affect on us, thats just foolishness. I know many a person here that realizes on the Gulf for their food, and work!

Oh and I don't think anyone was saying that humans were below animals at all. In fact I believe they are very worried. I'm surely upset about the affect it will have on my family.



Quote:
I think you have that very backwards, unfortunately.

I think you need to get your priorities straight. Humans matter vastly more than mere animals. GET OVER IT. The Bible is quite clear that humanity is to rule the Earth. Not abuse, mind you, but tend it and USE it. Darwin says "survival of the fittest." Here's a shocker for you: Humans are the fittest. The oil spill was an accident. Should we stop drilling for oil to save some freaking birds that nobody will miss? Are we supposed to go back to cave life so that the "exploited" animals will be free to... exist without people?

Animals have NO rights. Do I think we should care about the creatures? Yes. After all, stewardship implies, in fact requires, keeping the value around for future generations, which includes natural beauty and wildlife. But priorities, overall, should be on benefits for humans. I hate that the spill happened, I really do. But my pity goes primarily to the men who lost their lives and their families, second to those that lost their jobs, and last to the critters.

 

[Melissakins]

Okay, little perspective....this oil spill is going to cost way more jobs to humans that in effect will harm us in numerous ways....in part because of the toll on the 'mere animals'.

The environment that you called "abstract" is where WE here in the Gulf Coast area live....does that not count? That the very AIR we breathe is being affected by the oil spill that is out there in the waters that are in our back yard.....that is MY environment. My neighborhood. Where a lot of humans get their food that fills bellies and provides jobs. This is harming way more than you ever begin to imagine.....those 'mere animals' do matter......this is going to affect EVERYONE/everything on the gulf coast and quite possibly folks on the Atlantic coast should the oil get into the gulf stream that whips around the tip of Florida. This is way worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster that happened 21 years ago and is still affecting stuff today. The environment is far from abstract...it's a living creature. The animals in it are the bread and butter of thousands of people who fish for a living or who direct eco-tours. The creatures feed more than just us around here. If they die humans too will suffer as they already are from loss of their fishing grounds and loss of shrimp that grow in the waters that are being affected. Fish eat shrimp, if the shrimp and other small creatures die, so do the fish. If/when the fish die, there goes people's jobs and ways of lives.....there goes the tourism that runs rampant down here etc etc.

That's a tiny piece of the "big picture".

As such, our economy (not just here in Alabama or over in Mississippi or in Florida or in Louisiana) is going to suffer....that is going to hit everyone's wallet. Everyone. What is happening in the water is going to affect everything. We co-exist.....

Now, let's throw the up and coming Hurricane Season into the mix.......Yeah this is a mess....that by the way starts June 1 and goes through November.

I don't think anyone was saying that the lives lost are less important than the reality of what is still happening, just pointing out how horrific and scary this stuff is.

It's a mess and it is affecting our environment....

 

[ArizonaNessa]

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Might I remind you all who consumes the most oil? The only real prevention, 100% fool-proof prevention, will come when we, as people, no longer need or use oil. And I do not foresee that happening in my lifetime... Just sayin'.

I agree that this is the only true prevention but for the love of all things good, if they can grow an ear from scratch in a petri dish you would think that they would have created some great little device to stop this. I know they made blow out protectors but even the people that created those says they are a piece of crap.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

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That is entirely YOUR opinion. Quite frankly, if I had to choose who to save from certain death, my chickens or my uncle Carl and his household, I'd save the chickens, hands down.

The Bible is quite clear that humanity is to rule the Earth. Not abuse, mind you, but tend it and USE it.

That really only matters to Christians, and I am not one such.

Here's a shocker for you: Humans are the fittest.

Actually, coyotes and cockroaches are both far better at survival than humans are. But if you think you are the fittest, let's toss you into the jungle for a few months and see how you do.



Now, let me be blunt. The reason I am upset about the animals and the damage to nature is because I am human. This planet is Earth. It is the only one in this solar system capable of supporting human life. Each disaster like this one makes it much less so, and disasters like these occur because of human greed and selfishness. I want my son to be able to see a sea turtle in the wild. There are animals I saw as a child that have become extinct in my lifetime, and still more that will become extinct before my son is old enough to truly experience the world. Thus, yes, the damage done to nature matters to me far more than the lives of a few men who knew and consented to the risks involved in their work. Especially because, I hate to say, it, if they were doing their jobs properly the disaster may well not have happened or at least not been anywhere near as bad.

And for the record, most of the oxygen we breath comes from the plankton and the like in the ocean. ALL of which that was in the area of the oil spill is now dead. I am rather fond of breathing, thus, yes, the lives of the wildlife therein is vastly more important to me.


The humans will recover before the fish and birds do. The last disaster and the one before that and the one before that have demonstrated the truth of the recovery rate far to many times over.​

 

[redhen]

The animals had no choice in this diaster... the humans did.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

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I just wanted to add a little to this. Has anyone thought about the fact that if another "Katrina" was to hit there in the next few months (and it totally could happen) this oil could be thrown way up into the United States. No joke Kansas could have oil in it over this. Just a thought. Scary scary

 

[OccamsTazer]

Q9, "survival of the fittest" is Herbert Spencer, not Charles Darwin.

Also, as Prettiest Frog said, the Bible is not a valid source for many of us.