Condolences to the Goddess of Yangtze River

www.baiji.org

On Dec 13 2006, Baji, a rare freshwater dolphin species which thrived in the Yangtze River as early as 20 million years ago, was declared functionally extinct.

There are only 6 species of freshwater dolphins and porpoise in the world - 3 in Asia, 2 of which are found exclusive in the Yangtze River in China. Baiji has since disappeared, leaving another one on the brink of extinction.

It was a painful awakening to witness the demise of yet another species from the face of the earth. I had naively thought no news probably meant good news, until today. (fact is the media is just more interested in digging up for news on little bear cubs like Knut.) Really, scrolling down the list of recently extinct animals online just now was like reading through "Planet Earth's Obituaries" column...

Since the classic case of the Dodo bird, we hadn't been able to stop the onset of animals from slipping through our fingers day after day (in fact, according to 365 Ways by Philippe Bourseiller, more than 2 species are disappearing every hour) despite numerous laudable efforts.

Argument that evolution is part of a natural process is redundant here, cos to have large mammals near the end of the food chain disappearing when climate conditions havent yet changed drastically enough is anything BUT normal. It could only be due to human activity.

I shudder to even think about what the combined powers of climate change n man can do.

"Man would die of great loneliness if all the beasts are gone. For what happens to beasts will also happen to man." - anonymous