From time to time I pick a topic, then do research on the given topic.
Tonights topic was the Passenger Pigeon.
How could mankind take a species that numbers in the billions and hunt them into extinction? Were the people blind, or they just did not care?
As long as people were making money harvesting Passenger Pigeons, did they give any thought about what would happen if an entire species was wiped out?
Sometimes I am ashamed of humanity. While reading about how the passenger pigeon was slaughtered, I was very, very ashamed. Are humans so narrow minded and short sighted that we can not see what is happening in front of our faces?
Past the Passenger Pigeon
In the early 1900s millions of long leaf pine trees were clear cut. This deforestation contributed to the decimation of the wild turkey flocks and white tail deer in places like southeast Texas. It was a combination of deforestation and overhunting from the great depression that wiped out wildlife stocks.
If people could not see the Passenger Pigeon disappearing in front of their eyes, what makes us think people care about what is happening today?
We are still having to pay for the crimes of our forefathers.
Buffalo stocks will take thousands of years to recover. Here we are 100+ years after the north American buffalo herds were hunted to the edge of extinction, and the herds still have not recovered.
Passenger Pigeon – gone.
Turkey populations across the south – still recovering after 70 years of conservation. In places like southeast Texas the wild turkey were hunted to extinction. Stocks had to be brought in from other parts of the nation to restore the species.
The southeast Texas turkey and whitetail deer were killed off between the early 1900s and the 1930s. Here we are somewhere between 70 – 100 years later and the stocks “still” have not recovered.
Dodo bird – gone.
Tasmanian tiger – gone.
If those who came before us ignored what was in front of their face, are we doing to same?
How are our descendants going to deal with the billions of tons of trash our society is producing?
How are our descendants going to deal with nuclear waste?
How are our descendants going to deal with mercury in their fish?
Will the following generations be able to build a society on our trash piles?
Do we really think our actions today will not have long reaching effects in the future?
Kevin Felts
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