GabonX wrote:My point is that I hear a lot about how the extinction of a species will cause it's entire respective eco system to collapse and although I know of many species which have gone extinct, the world still seems to be functioning.
Problem is when it stops "functioning" ... well, we will be gone. Most of us would prefer to avert the problems beforehand.
GabonX wrote:Life is more resilient than most people seem to give it credit for. If there is one species which completely depends on another species for it's survival, I have to question the real value of the first species. Life seems to be relatively good at adapting and finding a new way of propogating itself regardless of whether an one species disapears.
Sorry, GabonX, but in this you seem to have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.
Life IS resiliant. But, to say you can simply substitute one species for another is just not true for a lot of reasons. First, if you say that any species which completely depends on another species for survival, it is not needed is just wrong. That applies to a huge number of animals, plants, etc. Biologists do speak of "ecological niches", in the sense that there are certain species that are herbivore/prey (for example), others that are predators. BUT, those things only apply in very broad ways. Its like saying that one family is equal to another. In some ways, anthropologically, true. YET...
Anyway, without getting into a whole ecology/biology lesson, the bottom line is as I asserted before Do you really know WHICH species we can live without?
GabonX wrote:Quite frankly marine eco systems in general have much less of an affect on people's lives than most eco systems on land. Regardless, there is probably not a single species man could not live without other than man.
You seriously need to study ecology and biology if you even begin to think this is true. Truth is we depend very, very heavily upon the marine ecosystem. We depend upon it for the air we breath, the purity of our water, much of the food we eat, transportation, etc... etc.
GabonX wrote:Plus if countries like Cuba and China are drilling for oil off of the coast of Florida, I don't see why we shouldn't. It's going on anyways.
Not sure where you get your information, but I know of no Chinese or Cuban rigs in US waters off Florida. US Companies DO have leases off Florida.. and Alabama and Mississippi and Texas. Some are quite active, but oil companies also have many leases that they are not using. Why? Because, despite record profits, the prices are still not high enough for stockholders to encourage the companies to activate existing rigs or establish new ones.
This is one reason why cries to "drill in Anwar", etc. are silly.
That said, my concern about using all the US oil up is that I think we WILL need it more in the future. I would rather take some hit now and less later than push it all back to later.