A woman in a Vancouver suburb just suffered a completely unprovoked attack by a black bear while gardening in her back yard. She was saved from certain death by neighbours who stoned the vicious animal and beat it with brooms.
Life in Canada is becoming precarious because governments are soft on dangerous four-footed predators, pass laws protecting them and allocate enormous amounts of money so they can multiply and increase their deadly attacks.
30
fresco
31
wenceslasz
Hello. This is my first incursion into "older travellers" and this debate is very interesting. To fresco I would say that I live in the cariboo (central BC) and bear country. We work and play in the Bowron Lakes area and bears are everywhere. It is true there is an overpopulation problem and the government should be increasing the allowable times for hunting but far fewer people are injured or killed by bears than by deer (Bambi is a killer). Here we consider deer and moose to be far more dangerous than bears and we need to cull them as well. I most certainly want to preserve all wild life (wild salmon, whales, bear, deer , moose and all the way down the line) but things are definitely out of whack.
In terms of the world at large I believe things are worsening and I believe it is due to the population growth. Years ago I read of a famous experiment in which a number of mice were provided with food and water and allowed to otherwise do as they pleased. For a time they breeded, their numbers grew and there were basically no problems but as the population grew further there began to be problems, more fighting, birthing problems, more mess, and so on. I may have the details wrong but you get the idea. So more people, more problems.
If we worry about all the problems we face in the world and they are all very real then it is hard to remain positive and avoid becoming pessimistic. I feel it is important to remain positive and optimistic about the future. I have to hope that we can all fix the problem and make the world a better place.
32
lor
Wenceslasz, I remember reading about the same experiment about 30 years ago. The one I read about was a cage over somebody's bathtub! (Maybe not the same experiment, but the same idea.) When the cage became overpopulated the mice had a WAR with many killed; afterwards life went on peacefully as before.
I believe that overpopulation is the single biggest factor in global warming, and that until we get this under control, we really can't 'conserve' our way out of this problem. Jared Diamond says that the earth can only sustain about 3 billion people and we are on our way to 9 billion. However, a physician friend of mine says that this will probably be taken care of with a virus (e.g. ebola, etc) that will sweep across the globe and voila! we will be down to 2 billion people! Yuk! Wouldn't birth control have been better?
33
fieldgate
Wouldn't birth control have been better?
Birth control reducing the present world population down to 3 mln (Am. billion) people?
On the other hand, the amount of food that is being produced today is enough to feed the whole present population plus another 50%. One, smaller part is living with huge overconsuption, and another one, that is much bigger, with malnutrition and starvation.
34
wenceslasz
The experiment I read about was described in a display at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. It would have been 20 years ago (1989). It was very disconcerting to read about it then and now is even worse.
I do believe we are due for some kind of viral epidemic like th influenza of the 1920's. I don't think there will be a 75% death rate. The human body is pretty resistant/adaptable but it could be deadly none the less.
Too depressing to contemplate.
35
peachfront
Well, at the end of the day, maybe what you fear says more about your background than anything else. I do not fear black bears, rampaging moose, killer bees, alligators, bird flu, West Nile disease, etc. I fear someone picking up a gun and firing into my house. Probably that's because someone actually picked up a gun and fired 5 bullets at my house. All of the black bears, meeses, bees, and alligators I've met have been fairly easy-going. It's a coin toss whether a mosquito kills you and when a friend of mine was killed by mosquito borne disease in his teens, right here in Louisiana, I could have succumbed to hysterics and never gone outdoors again, or I could make the decision to hope for the best and enjoy life while I'm here. My choice was to enjoy life while I'm here.
36
pleistocenemegafauna
Not to dampen some good rantings but here is your per capita m ratio top 30
Nervous Nellies beware
#1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
#2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
#3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
#4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
#5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
#6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
#7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
#8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
#9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
#10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
#11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
#12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000 people
#13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
#14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
#15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
#16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
#17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
#18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
#19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
#20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
#21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
#22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
#23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
#24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
#25 Armenia: 0.0425746 per 1,000 people
#26 India: 0.0344083 per 1,000 people
#27 Yemen: 0.0336276 per 1,000 people
#28 Dominica: 0.0289733 per 1,000 people
#29 Azerbaijan: 0.0285642 per 1,000 people
#30 Finland: 0.0283362 per 1,000 people
37
rorygemwriter
peachfront #35 Thank you for your post. Seems to me that the choice is either your attitude or to hide under the bedclothes. Specifically I don't fear bears but would need to know a little more about what to do when I met one. Knowledge and common sense go a long way.
38
wenceslasz
Too true Peachfront. I'd much rather face a bear than indiscriminent shooters. Bears except for the occasional killer are more likely to run. Moose are less predictable and more dangerous but still less than shooters and mosquitoes. It is always vital to remain optimistic (without wearing rose coloured glasses) in the face of so many problems in the world.
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