When do we let endangered fish go extinct? For Redfish Lake sockeye salmon, the time is now says the so-called "God Squad." Is it worthwhile to spend millions of dollars trying to save these unique and distinct salmon that swim over 900 miles and up to 7000 feet elevation from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in landlocked Idaho's Redfish lake? Or, is it appropriate mitigation to spend money on sockeye in exchange for dams that have spread benefits to many but hurt the fish?The Redfish Lake sockeye rescue effort is an interesting story in trying to hold off extinction, in hopes for restoring once-vibrant fish populations.
Some say that society made the choice when we chose to build the dams, and we should let the fish go extinct. But we were promised that we could have the dams and the fish too.
We brought back the bald eagle, and the osprey, and now they're thriving. Was this worth the cost? Some say we should bring back DDT, that the benefits of DDT are worth the cost.
We have an obligation to try to live with nature, instead of carelessly eliminating what gets in our way. Also, we're too reliant on nature's services to blithely eliminate pieces of nature's works, in the hope that we won't eliminate anything important. Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment