The advantages of species extinction

It was both sad and entertaining to see that BBC Bitsize, the BBC’s resource for school children, had a list of the advantages of climate change which included:

  • More resources, such as oil, becoming available in places such as Alaska and Siberia when the ice melts.
  • Warmer temperatures could lead to healthier outdoor lifestyles.
  • New tourist destinations becoming available.
  • Energy consumption decreasing due to a warmer climate.
  • New shipping routes, such as the Northwest passage, would become available.

The BBC have an unenviable job of being impartial, but balancing the truth with a lie is not the same as impartiality. As the classic analogy goes, if one person says it’s raining and the other says it’s not, your job isn’t to just quote them but to go outside and see which one it is. It was particularly sad coming in the same week as extreme temperatures were causing deaths and destruction.

Inspired by all those positive aspects of climate change I thought I’d present a list of the positive aspects of extinction of life on Earth:

Positive aspects of species extinction:

  • Reduction in economic cost of keeping rare species alive.
  • More land available for parks, gardens and pets.
  • Reduction in injuries from predators such as lions and sharks.
  • Reduction in pandemics due to transmission of zoonotic diseases.
  • Increase in other common species by removal of competitors and predators.
  • Zoos can focus on entertainment rather than species reintroductions.

Sadly, I’m now expecting these to be adopted as ‘real’ arguments for ecocide by those with no sense of irony.

Here’s the sun setting on a Puffin:

Puffin sunset - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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