![\"Snow](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/snow-leopard-08081.jpg?resize=575%2C466\" "\\"Snow")
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Snow Leopard, watercolor on ivorine, \u00a9Rebecca Latham<\/p>\n
I went to a lecture recently themed around conservation.\u00a0 After the session, one young woman asked the speaker “but why do you bother saving this species?”\u00a0 If they are so threatened, if it will cost large sums of time, effort, and currency, why bother?\u00a0 Why care?\u00a0 It’s a losing battle.<\/p>\n
She wasn’t stating this regarding her own convictions.\u00a0 She was dedicated to supporting wildlife and environmental causes in need.\u00a0 However, she receives this stance (apparently regularly) against her support for saving species.<\/p>\n
The question remains.\u00a0 Why do we?<\/p>\n
One argument, because humanity has unfortunately aided in their decline to this point.\u00a0 We push them out of their habitat, clearing land they call home.\u00a0 Sometimes they have special needs and can’t just adapt.\u00a0 ..or hunting or pet trade has diminished their population.\u00a0 Are we responsible?\u00a0 Then shouldn’t we be obligated to fix it?<\/p>\n
A second point.. as the common idiom states, “Variety is the spice of life”.\u00a0 Do we really want to lose that variety? Forever?<\/p>\n
We live in an elaborate web.\u00a0 All species are connected in some way, with each other, and our environment.\u00a0 If one loose thread is pulled, one species falls off the map, etc., things begin to unravel in other places.\u00a0 It has happened already, and sadly, we only see the impact in hindsight. We do not yet fully understand the workings of this vast ecosystem we live in.\u00a0 Are we really prepared to start\u00a0willingly pulling threads?<\/p>\n
Personally, I am the type that slams on the brakes on the highway for the hen mallard and her seven ducklings crossing the road at midday.\u00a0 (yes, true story)\u00a0 ..because, rare or not, they have just as much right to be here as we do.<\/p>\n
Do you support conservation?\u00a0 Why do you ‘bother’?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Snow Leopard, watercolor on ivorine, \u00a9Rebecca Latham I went to a lecture recently themed around conservation.\u00a0 After the session, one young woman asked the speaker “but why do you bother saving this species?”\u00a0 If they are so threatened, if it will cost large sums of time, effort, and currency, why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1788,1094,1088,1095,1114,1082,1113,214,1089,216,1091,1084,230,246,248,1083,1112,494,1110,1087,1093,358,1115,611,1086,1096,1085,1090,423,1111,1097,445,463,1092,1116,1117],"class_list":["post-4885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-stuff","tag-conservation","tag-convictions","tag-currency","tag-decline","tag-ducklings","tag-ecosystem","tag-environmental-causes","tag-habitat","tag-hindsight","tag-home","tag-hunting","tag-interconnection","tag-ivorine","tag-latham","tag-leopard","tag-loose-thread","tag-losing-battle","tag-mallard","tag-midday","tag-pet-trade","tag-population","tag-rebecca-latham","tag-slams","tag-snow-leopard","tag-special-needs","tag-spice-of-life","tag-sums","tag-threads","tag-time","tag-true-story","tag-variety-is-the-spice-of-life","tag-watercolor","tag-wildlife","tag-young-woman","tag--lathami","tag-1117"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/snow-leopard-0808.jpg?fit=575%2C466&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4885"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4906,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions\/4906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lathamstudios.com\/rebecca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}