Awesome for the bears (really), but I'm annoyed that China doesn't do more to reduce demand for rhino horn, which is devastating the African rhino population for absolutely no reason. Black rhino population is down 95%+ since 1960.<p>Other countries can definitely share the blame, but I would imagine China would be more sensitive to the issue since they have their own endangered species that we all celebrate.
For every good news...<p><pre><code> Eastern gorilla now critically endangered while giant panda
situation improves
</code></pre>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/04/eastern-gorilla-critically-endangered-illegal-hunting-iucn-red-list" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/04/eastern-...</a>
I love the first image. Panda wants high five! :D<p><a href="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/7E06/production/_91026223_gettyimages-594359398.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/7E06/production...</a>
This is great news, but mountain gorillas were also moved from endangered to critically endangered status by IUCN. ALL of humanity's closest relatives are either critically endangered (the two species of orangutans and two species of gorillas), or endangered (bonbos and chmipanzees).
I'm not sure our settings for considering endangered species are quite right. Someone told me a long time ago that "[...] <i>like any other wild animals</i>, their biggest threat comes from mankind". With 2000 giant pandas alive and 7.5 billion bipeds, yeah, that's about right.<p>I think we've profoundly failed as a species. Apart from bringing almost all living things on the brink of extinction, and nudge about every stable ecosystem that was prospering before us, what have we done? What kind of prowess have we achieved? Did we land on another planet yet? Did we built a cohesive hive mind shared between every individuals alive?<p>Earth doesn't more humans, and if we could shave around 2 or 3 billion right now, that would be alright. Problem is, humans tends to get nervous when you apply natural selection to them. Eating cows? No problem. Getting chased by something with large teeth? Nope nope nope nope.
Extinction happens not because people consume the animal but because they don’t. For example, the cow and the chicken are at no risk of going extinct because they are consumed.