Orangutans Could Go Extinct in 20 Years

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20030929/ap_on_sc/threatened_orangutans ^

[DittoJed2]

Orangutans Facing Extinction

Logging has been increasing in recent years, moving away from the river edges into the interior of the forests where the orangutans live, Cheryl Knott said in a telephone interview.

Knott studies orangutans in Indonesia's Gunung Palung National Park, home to about 2,500 of the animals, about one-tenth of those in the world. Orangutans live only in Indonesia and Malaysia, said Knott, whose work is sponsored by the National Geographic (news - web sites) Society.

While the government of Indonesia has a commitment to protect orangutans, sending in national police periodically, the loggers return when the police leave, she said.

Knott said she hopes to raise awareness internationally "that we really do have a crisis here.... We could wake up in 20 years and they would be extinct."

Orangutans, like other great apes, are close relatives to humans. Researchers have learned a lot about them in recent years.

Knott said one colony was observed to use primitive tools, a skill passed on to their offspring. And she said the group she studies makes unique sounds under some circumstances.

Orangutans are almost totally arboreal, living in the trees, traveling through the trees and eating fruit from the trees, she said.

She said several hundred trees have been removed in her study area. Loggers cut them into manageable logs with chain saws, drag those logs to a nearby river and float them to market.

[DittoJed2]

Orangutans, like other great apes, are close relatives to humans.
So? Science is amoral. Why should we care? Morality amongst humans is merely relative (in an evolutionary way of thinking)right? and if loggers in Indonesia want to strip the forests, who are the cops or environmentalists to say no? So what if the orangutans go extinct? The fittest still survived! If human beings are the only foundation for morality, whose morality rules???

[DittoJed2]

Automatically moved this one to the Smokey Backroom myself to save the admin the trouble :) Just a little practical philosophizing using criteria of a world without God.

[DittoJed2]

Pinging you all too (yes I am being highly sarcastic in my commentary on this one).

[DittoJed2]

Oops, looks like it's in the regular section. Oh well. I'm sure the admin will be here soon enough (nothing against the admin on this).

[Soliton]

Damn shame. They are delicious.

[eclectic]

You are talking about your distant cousins here

[Steely Glint]

Can they please take the Democtratic Party with them?

[DittoJed2]

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[DittoJed2]

Think the demoncrats are already on their way to extinction, without help from anyone.

[Richard Kimball]

Knott said she hopes to raise awareness internationally "that we really do have a crisis here.... We could wake up in 20 years and they would be extinct."

While I would hate to see the species go extinct, the headline should read, environmentalist makes theoretical, off the wall statement. Yahoo takes her seriously.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

In a world where Mohammedians are trying to kill us, politicians are trying to enslave us and we ourselves are murdering millions of our own progeny, why should I give a rats sphincter about an Orang or any other nonbipedal primate?

I've got enough on my plate worrying about homo sapiens. Let the Pongo pygmaeus take care of themselves.

[DittoJed2]

Cause they're cute?

Last one looks a little like Johnny Carson.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Cute, sure, I'll give you that. I promise to give it all some serious consideration when the world has become a place safe to crusade for the Darwinianaly Challenged.

Until that time, cute gets you squat.

[yankeedame]

...We could wake up in 20 years and they would be extinct."

And yet, if that were to happen, I suspect that somehow life would go on.

[bondserv]

Hello DittoJed,

[GOPyouth]

Right turn, Clyde.

[stockpixx]

I would like them to live... and would actually give money to see them survive....
Why are you all so ugly about that????

[GATOR NAVY]

...the headline should read, environmentalist makes theoretical, off the wall statement...

I think a more accurate headline would be 'Wild Orangutans Could Go Extinct in 20 Years". There's plenty of orangutans in captivity. It would be a little sad if there weren't any more in the wild, but they wouldn't be extinct by a long shot.

[bicycle thug]

Yeah, spend your grand kid's inheritance, who cares about how desolate and nasty this planet becomes as long as you have yours, right?

In Genesis, God said be good stewards of the Earth, not it's distroyer. If you extinct enough elements of an ecosystem, you don't have one anymore. It's as simple as that.

We distroy enough of God's creation, we deserve to reap what we sow. It doesn't get anymore simpler then that.

[philetus]

Out with the old, in with the new.
A Dutch zoologist has discovered two new species of monkey in a remote corner of Brazil's Amazon rain forest.

The squirrel-sized monkeys were found by Marc Von Roosmalen about 190 miles (300 kilometres) from Manaus, where local residents kept them as pets.