Treehuggers gone wild!

Okay, here's another interesting and weird statement.

"If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before --- Jonas Salk"
Taken from the site, Aussies Living Simply.

Here's the problem with this statement. Right, so we get rid of all, and I do mean all, insects. Besides the humor therein, the comparison is invalid. By getting rid of all insects, all species of insects (flies, roaches, mosquitoes, crickets, potato bugs, click bugs, lightening bugs, maggots, ants, termites, etc), of course it wouldn't take long for the world to fall apart. The ecosystem is somewhat fragile, were we to get rid of all insects. But, there is only one human species, not multiple ones. So, the statement is rather strained, to say the least. It's a comparison of the many to the one. Sorry, Mr. Salk. Your statement is filled with treehugging, green earth, environmentalist wacko rhetoric. Look at it this way. If you got rid of only one species of insects, the world would swallow up the hole left by that lost insect. Get rid of termites? Not to worry, something else would take its place. Get rid of maggots, something else would take their place. In fact, get rid of any one insect and humanity will figure out how to replace it. Get rid of the human species and the animals/insects will never figure out how to replace it.


Now, don't get me wrong. I believe we ought to protect the species. I believe we ought to protect the earth as much as possible. But, to make this comparison is an unfair comparison typical of the environmental preservationist that has drunk too much of the koolaid. They've become a "fan" (refer to previous post regarding sports fans), allowing the "gotcha" statements to become "truth" when, in fact, they are, at best, a nifty sentence structure that pulls at ones emotions. See, just more proof that. . .

People are weird!