In the Headlines vol. 4

January 17, 2007India

A rampaging leopard attacks a resident of the Indian city of Nashik in Maharashtra state. Panicked city dwellers beat the animal with sticks and iron bars while chasing it from populated areas, inflicting wounds that most likely caused the animal's death soon after it was captured by forest guards. The attack is just another in a series of conflicts between humans and the big cats, which are protected in India, as population growth cuts into the animals' natural habitat. In Maharashtra alone, marauding leopards have killed 22 people in the past year, according to BBC News.

www.nationalgeographics.com

When I read this article an odd thought popped into my head; how selfish are we? Our human nature has a wanting for the things that are bigger and better causing us to spread out and encroach on the world we live in. It almost brings truth a line from ‘The Matrix’, we are a virus, destroying the world around us until there’s nothing left.

In thinking about this, I can’t come up with a solution or even see how we can combat our selfish tendencies. Here is an odd balance between discoveries and technologic advances, and the animals, plants, and weather patterns that are affected by our growth.

Is conservation enough? Is there more we can do? Will this world survive us?
Amazing questions whose answers are left to a higher power, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing for us to do.