Look sir: dodos!

I know, it's been a long time since my last "big" blog entry, so why not do one right now?

The picture to the left of this text is a dragon by the famous Dutch artist M.C. Escher. I didn't know he made it until just a minute ago, when I found the picture on the internet. So, it's not mine, but mr. Escher's.

My parents used to have this picture on the wall of the attic. In colour. I've always been fascinated by it; how come it's biting its own tail? Why does its head comes through its wings? And the tail, too? What's the point in that? What are the shards at its feet? Why does it only have two legs, shaped like chicken legs? Many questions, without obvious answers.

In a way, it was an early encounter with Escher's work, which I later grew to love. I love patterns like this one, or this, and I even have a clock with this image. Still without knowing the Dragon was his, by the way. I just love those metres-long patterns of houses, cubes, birds and lizards. In a way they fit perfectly. On some level, it all made sense. The empty spaces between the fish were shaped like ducks, because there is no emptiness in nature. All life forms exist at the edge of the next. All shapes and sizes can be reduced to a few basic concepts.

Or so it seemed. Extinction was just a thing of millions of years ago, and it didn't occur to me that species go extinct in the present day. There is emptiness in nature, although maybe not naturally. Mankind is responsible for quite a part of that. Destruction seems to be a dominant trait in man, coupled with an arrogant attitude about "being superior" and "ruling all other lifeforms". Catastrophe was bound to happen.

I've always been surprised at this general arrogance; the ease of claiming superiority and dominance over other species. Where is the proof of that? I know, it says so in the Bible, but if you live by the book that literally, you should've read that it's also our duty to guard and shepherd these other animals and plants.

However, I do know not accredit the Bible that much. Humanity just assumed its dominant position. Funny how people always think that they are the best around, and not some other group. It's true about this as much as about racism. Never will you hear, say, a Jew, talk about how, say, Eskimos are the Chosen People of God.

Of course, I make the same mistake by blaming others and not myself, but still. I try to have at least a sense of logic behind it.

So people always assume they are better than animals. I'm sure you've heard people say how [insert animal here] has no feelings, so it's alright to go fishing/hunting/slaughter/abuse/other. Or how a certain species is "primitive". I hate those things. People tend to forget that humanity is not exactly very "civilized" or "evolved to perfection". We are not the epiphany of evolution; not the divine creatures; not God's gift to the world. We are merely a link in the chain that is evolution. A subspecies of monkeys with something called conscience. You wouldn't say, huh? But for a few centuries, we are a bunch of mammoth-hunting, walking apes with spears. The spears just became a little better, and noisier.

Why do people kill off entire planets of wildlife? Because of arrogance, and because of money. Money, the root of all evil, some say. Money, which is the root of all evil to those that do not have it, and causes them to do evil things to get it.

Dodo? Extinct.
Darwin's galapagos mouse? Gone.
Balinese tiger? Lost.
Tasmanian tiger? Not a trace.

There are currently over one and a half million species of animals threatened with extinction, as can be seen on these two websites.

I will not claim that these species are essential to their respective surroundings, as I am a believer in the Chaos Theory that states that "life will always find a way". I will just say it is arrogant of man to rid the world of nature.

Wildlife can be beautiful if you're open for it. You don't need to see it, but just leave it alone. We've wasted enough of it. Enjoy it while you still can.