Re: NANFA--Paddlefish and gar, 1908

Moontanman_at_aol.com
Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:29:10 EST

In a message dated 2/18/04 6:37:37 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ichthos_at_comcast.net writes:

> Wow. Two things strike me here. One -- the amazing number of fishes that
> lived in our waters compared to today. And two -- just how quickly and
> mindlessly humans have depleted our aquatic fauna. This reminds me of
> something I read a few months back, and which I've been thinking about ever
> since:
>
> "It wasn't the vision and principles of our forefathers that made this
> country great. It was the huge unused bonanza they found here. One wave of
> immigrants after another could occupy new land, new land, new land. There
> was topsoil, water -- there was gold, silver, and iron ore lying right on
> top of the earth. We picked our way through a ripe orchard and made it
> bare."
>
> -- Glenn Saunders, quoted in "Cadillac Desert"
>
Great quote! I was trying to explain to someone on another list how
misleading it is for people to say how much better the environment is getting when you
look at the last 25 years it looks that way but when you look at the last 500
we are obviously on a down hill slide greased with Teflon! 100 years from now
our great grandkids will be saying how much better things are, just look at
the 100 elephant embryos we have frozen, if we can find a live elephant in a zoo
young enough we can implant one and have another elephant!

Moon
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