Rant

I rarely have a rant on this blog but i think i have to say something today. Now normally science isn't an overly emotional thing, discoveries and debunkings are taken in stride, but sometimes there are things that outrage me to the point of being overridden by sadness. It was this weeks NewScientist article on the Yangtze River Dolphin ' So long and thanks for all the fish' that made me upset. The author writes about how the dolphin has been on the brink of extinction for the last 20 years and now in the publication of the most recent IUCN Threatened Species Red List publication it has been re-classified as 'critically endangered (possibly extinct).' Now, you're probably wondering why this article made me particularly sad and angry with the regularity that species appear to go extinct in our current day and age. It is the fact that we knew that this dolphin was critically endangered for the last 20 years.
That is what makes me sad. I remember seeing footage of the very last tasmanian tiger, the thylacine that was held in captivity in the Hobart Zoo in the 1930's. Its name was Benjamin, and it died of neglect. Seeing the 62 second footage of this unique marsupial predator was one of the saddest minutes of footage i have ever seen. Now this is going to sound bad but while images of children dying because of war and nearsightedness make me angry i dont ever feel the depth of sadness i have when i think that with the death of Benjamin died its DNA. No longer will it exist on this planet again. Its gone. Permanently. And the world becomes a little more lonely. When a human dies, we mourn the loss of the individual but their genes, their DNA is in every one of us. We all exist together (this is why ive always known id make a terrible medical doctor).
But, when an animal with no other close living relatives like the Yangtze Dolphin goes extinct... then all thats left is a hollowness. It makes me sad.
But not helpless. If anyone has ever wondered why i study ants, or biology, this is why.
I want to make a difference. And I will try my darndest to.