Nothing could make me happier

[Levin]

A giant population of lowland Gorillas found.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/sc...05apes.html?hp

I wish this had remained secret. Most precious resources do best when left undiscovered.

[landpoke]

Awesome! I've had a hankering for a pair of gorilla skin boots since I don't know when.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Levin

A giant population of lowland Gorillas found.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/sc...05apes.html?hp

I wish this had remained secret. Most precious resources do best when left undiscovered.

Good to see there are some in the wild. Honest.

Let's see how happy you are - would you trade an Obama win in November for 500,000 western lowland gorillas?

[Levin]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

Good to see there are some in the wild. Honest.

Let's see how happy you are - would you trade an Obama win in November for 500,000 western lowland gorillas?

No. The addition of 125,000 gorillas is sufficient to stabilize the population. We don't need an additional 500,000 of that one species as much as we need a President who will seek to protect the rest of the endangered.

[Levin]

Originally Posted by landpoke

Awesome! I've had a hankering for a pair of gorilla skin boots since I don't know when.

Does the blood on your hands ever wash off?

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Levin

No. The addition of 125,000 gorillas is sufficient to stabilize the population. We don't need an additional 500,000 of that one species as much as we need a President who will seek to protect the rest of the endangered.

So, you are willing to sell out.

You're just like the rest of us.

[Levin]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

So, you are willing to sell out.

You're just like the rest of us.

There's no selling out. I'd be selling the entire environment out if I chose 500,000 lowland gorillas and got another Republican president as a result.

[landpoke]

In all seriousness, does this give you pause at all with regard to other doomsday proclamations of imminent collapse? Does it make you question at all the methodologies by which animal populations are determined? As the article states, twenty years ago it was etched in stone that there were less than 100,000 lowland gorillas and all of a sudden, after someone goes and actually looks, there's at least twice that number.

I seriously question a lot of the "science" today as it consists of a lot of extrapolation based on cursory field checks.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by Levin

I wish this had remained secret.

So why are you all blabbling it all over the internet? Learn to keep a secret man.

[Levin]

Originally Posted by landpoke

In all seriousness, does this give you pause at all with regard to other doomsday proclamations of imminent collapse? Does it make you question at all the methodologies by which animal populations are determined? As the article states, twenty years ago it was etched in stone that there were less than 100,000 lowland gorillas and all of a sudden, after someone goes and actually looks, there's at least twice that number.

I seriously question a lot of the "science" today as it consists of a lot of extrapolation based on cursory field checks.

It's all about what will get the most behavior effects. I'll take the lower-end guesses so that human behavior is shaped accordingly. Humans always will go as far as they can, and so by painting a darker picture, conservationists get more behavioral effects than they would otherwise.

The optimist in me wants to agree with you that conservationists choose a methodology that will reach a gloomier result by design. Not sure that's the case with most animal population counts. People like you won't let us.

It's an eternal tug-of-war. We say, "only 50 left, preserve habitat." You say, "BS, there's a hundred, so 1/2 of that habitat is just begging to be raped. Let me at her."