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Polar bears are just a poster species. Whether they live or die only affects our perception of ourself. What about the rest of the biomass of the earth? The non-mammalian...non cuddly?
Over 100 amphibian species are already thought to have gone extinct. Those that have survived are threatened with an extinction rate 211 times over the background rate. Oceanic dead zones increase in size every year, square miles of flotsam have been found in the Pacific, coastal waters are overfished, and an area the size of Rhode Island is degraded in the Amazon rainforest every year.
Whether we like to admit it or not, we live by the words of the first post. While the green, hippie Prius driver may hate the god-fearing "troll," the actions of his western ways say the same words. We are in the middle of the Holocene mass extinction. An extinction we've caused collectively.
If it does come down to survival, the polar bear will be dead. It's the flaw of humanity and the flaw of thinking you were put "on" this earth rather than "in" it. Don't worry, though, polar bears go to polar bear heaven, right?
- LostCause
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