In this day and age, it boggles the mind to read about a new species being discovered, much less 20. It’s a double edged sword; we are still discovering things on our own planet, even as we reach farther and farther out from our little niche in the universe; and we are making footprints on lands that may be better off with out them. This comes just a few days within the news that we sent a rocket to the moon to bomb it for water. If we are running out of water on Earth THAT fast, wouldn’t it be prudent to, I don’t know… TELL us?
We are constantly discovering the bounties that our little planet has to offer, which makes the case for continued and increased conservation. It also helps that many of these new creatures, are just adorable. Sure, it wouldn’t make it any LESS important to discover un-cute animals, but it certainly can nudge a few of the stragglers. SEE? By recycling and turning the water off when you brush your teeth, we can continue to find and preserve animals like this little guy:
Can’t you just hear him saying something prosh like “¡Buenos dias bonita!” (translated as: “Good day, beautiful!”)
On the flip side, I could argue that most of these creatures are doing fine on their own. Now that they have been “discovered”, it is possible that they may become hunted, their food sources depleted and become extinct. This little guy is, unfortunately, nearing extinction:
Not all the discoveries have been of other, new species either. The oldest human skeleton has been found and it is raising many questions of our evolution. Can you believe it? Another link to our own past! Now, I’m not going to assume that if we hadn’t been turning off the lights when we leave a room, or putting rocks in our toilet tanks, we wouldn’t have found “Ardi”. Archeologists and anthropologists will do as they do, no matter how we trash the planet. But, thankfully our poisonous runoff didn’t get too and dissolve these old bones AND has given us new insight into our beginnings and about ourselves.
About our stealthy guest blogger: Beth is the sole owner and member of The Z is Silent, a project to start an all inclusive arts space in Philadelphia. She envisions a completely modular space where artists can present visual, performing and any other kind of art in a space they themselves can help design and work with instead of in. However, Beth has no money. So, instead she fills her time writing nonsensical and whimsical musings for blogs like Chic Vegan and her own Atoms of Minutiae and being an office drone. She lives with her lovely boyfriend, his mustache, a cat and a dog.