A term which was coined some years back is speciesism. It goes well with racism, sexism, ageism, classism, etc. I confess to being guilty. I hate snakes, but don't mind lizards, which if you think about it are snakes with legs. Spiders and crickets don't bother me, but I stomp any cockroach I see. It's a tricky issue.
Add mosquitoes to your list and you have mine, also. I am unaware of any specie that relies exclusively on mosquitoes as their food source. The positive benefits of the extinction of mosquitoes far outweighs any negative consequence. But, like the cockroach, mosquitoes are likely to remain on this Earth long after we have gone the way of the passenger pigeons.
Both theologians and laypeople wonder why it is that everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. One of my students once said that another theological mystery is "why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?" C. S. Lewis, in discussing whether there might be an afterlife for animals, jokingly said: "A heaven for mosquitoes might be a hell for humans."
“To be sure, ecologists point out that the loss of a species can disrupt ecosystems that have evolved around those species. But species disappear constantly in natural history. In fact more than 99 percent of all species in the history of the earth have gone extinct. The loss of one species opens a niche for other species. The extinction of the dinosaurs made possible the emergence of mammals and eventually us.”
What the above statement completely sidesteps is the extent to which biodiversity loss in the last five hundred years (some argue the last 10,000 years) has been anthropogenically driven. It’s not been due to evolutionary selective pressures, or some massive natural cataclysm. Human activity is solely responsible, & so we have an obligation to reverse as much of the damage as possible, especially when ecosystems can be healed by the restoration of species to a landscape. Gray wolves in the American West are a case in point. The most recent studies clearly demonstrate how vital Canis Lupus is to ecosystem balance across its historic range. Here’s an example: https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/062024_wolves_lawsuit/
Maybe the difference in interest of the eagle and the bison and wolves is that they also occupy a space in the eco system than does the pigeon? The carrier pigeon has numerous near relatives which could replace it?
Also , yes while eagles do steal food they also are a prey animal. Just look at a video of an eagle swooping into a lake and coming up with a fisth- quite dramatic!
A term which was coined some years back is speciesism. It goes well with racism, sexism, ageism, classism, etc. I confess to being guilty. I hate snakes, but don't mind lizards, which if you think about it are snakes with legs. Spiders and crickets don't bother me, but I stomp any cockroach I see. It's a tricky issue.
Add mosquitoes to your list and you have mine, also. I am unaware of any specie that relies exclusively on mosquitoes as their food source. The positive benefits of the extinction of mosquitoes far outweighs any negative consequence. But, like the cockroach, mosquitoes are likely to remain on this Earth long after we have gone the way of the passenger pigeons.
Both theologians and laypeople wonder why it is that everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. One of my students once said that another theological mystery is "why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?" C. S. Lewis, in discussing whether there might be an afterlife for animals, jokingly said: "A heaven for mosquitoes might be a hell for humans."
“To be sure, ecologists point out that the loss of a species can disrupt ecosystems that have evolved around those species. But species disappear constantly in natural history. In fact more than 99 percent of all species in the history of the earth have gone extinct. The loss of one species opens a niche for other species. The extinction of the dinosaurs made possible the emergence of mammals and eventually us.”
What the above statement completely sidesteps is the extent to which biodiversity loss in the last five hundred years (some argue the last 10,000 years) has been anthropogenically driven. It’s not been due to evolutionary selective pressures, or some massive natural cataclysm. Human activity is solely responsible, & so we have an obligation to reverse as much of the damage as possible, especially when ecosystems can be healed by the restoration of species to a landscape. Gray wolves in the American West are a case in point. The most recent studies clearly demonstrate how vital Canis Lupus is to ecosystem balance across its historic range. Here’s an example: https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/062024_wolves_lawsuit/
Maybe the difference in interest of the eagle and the bison and wolves is that they also occupy a space in the eco system than does the pigeon? The carrier pigeon has numerous near relatives which could replace it?
Also , yes while eagles do steal food they also are a prey animal. Just look at a video of an eagle swooping into a lake and coming up with a fisth- quite dramatic!