RE: NANFA-- Worst environmental disasters?

Dave Neely (rheopresbe_at_hotmail.com)
Wed, 10 Oct 2001 10:14:24 -0500

<x-flowed>
Rob,

>but... in my opinion, the greatest disaster has been the development of
>vaccines and cures for diseases and other technological advances which
> >have further removed humans from the forces of natural selection >thereby
>increasing life spans and birth rates and decreasing mortality >which has
>led to our overwhelming over population problem and all of >the associated
>environmental effects.

You're probably not far off. It seems everything relates back to our ability
to royally screw up ecosystems, usually without even realizing what we were
doing at the time. While some specific examples spring to mind - faunas like
Lake Tanganyika cichlids, Coosa River snails, Hawaiian birds, etc., the
cumulative impacts of humans over several millennia overwhelm any one event.

Just finished Tim Flannery's "The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of
North America and Its Peoples." Interesting read, highly recommended, but
depressing as hell. If you have any interest in effects of humans on the
environment, then you NEED to read this book.

cheers,
Dave

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org
</x-flowed>