Sorry, I should have made clear that I meant that reintroduction of species to an area where they were previously extinct was OK, but that introducing species such as rats etc. to areas they never were a natural part of the ecosystem thereof, was a bad idea. Of course, ideally, one should really just reduce human intervention in Nature  to near-zero levels as that would allow a balance to eventually appear on its own, but that would require much harsher laws to make slaughterers of wildlife suffer decades of imprisonment, a considerable expansion of the size of National Parks to allow animals to migrate to other wild areas  etc. 
 
Geoff 



"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” 


 Arthur Schopenhauer quote http://www.rawpaleo.com/ http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawpaleodiet/ > Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 14:27:19 +0100> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Letter From New Scientist Magazine> To: [log in to unmask]> > I really don't see how Mankind can be seen as a "vital cog" of the cosystem. Mankind is far more fo a natural diaster than anything else. Plus, time and time again, we've shown that every artificial human intervention in the natural ecosystem has been a catasrophe for local wildlife, such as the introduction of alien species into totally unsuitable ecosystems where they wreak havoc on the local indigenous fauna. > > As regards the shooting of bison and wolves in the US or the shooting of badgers in the UK, all these methods re "managing wildlife" are done for the benefit of humans not of the local ecosystem, really. Things work far better when one lets Nature take its course. For example, there has been some encouraging common sense in the UK re the notion of reintroducing wolves and bear back into the UK, among many others previously wiped out by humans "managing" the wild. Whereas before these were seen only as troublesome pests, they're now seen as absolutely vital in terms of controlling the runaway deer population, as amateur hunting has done nothing re combatting that other problem. That's why I'm rather in favour of (some of ) the tactics of the ALF, such as that time when they freed some domesticated wild boars from farms so that these could repopulate the UK in the numbers they did before they were wiped out centuries ago.> > Geoff> Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 07:37:38 -0500> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Letter From New Scientist Magazine> To: [log in to unmask]> > > massive population> > reduction, which even in the most optimistic scenarios will take > > far longer> > to achieve than our lifetimes> > Ooh, I'm not a big fan of the word choices. Ending the lives of > millions of people would never be an "achievement."> > This is an interesting conversation. We're having a similar one over > on my Yellowstone list regarding bison. Animal rights activists are > understandably freaking out about slaughter of buffalo by state > agencies and the cattle industry in and around the Park. I asked a > question about the natural carrying capacity for bison in the > Yellowstone ecosystem while making the point that man is not a > spectator on this earth but is a vital cog.> > Jim> > _________________________________________________________________> > http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000009ukm/direct/01/
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