counting coots

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Birdlife, which was nice.  So I read it, and it turns out that it wasn't. 

For those that haven't recieved it or don't know what it's about, here it is, verbatim.

Dear Bird Blogger,

Today we announced that Alaotra Grebe is officially extinct on the Red List.

The Dodo is the undoubted ‘celebrity’ among extinct species with its depiction in books, cartoons and the well-used expression ‘Dead as a Dodo’. Less well known about the Dodo is that it heads up a group of single island flightless birds that became extinct either at the hands of man, or by the introduction of predators that came along with the arrival of people to their islands. More than 130 species of birds have become extinct since AD 1500, mostly because of human actions...


When BirdLife publicises news of threat or extinction the first question posed by the media will be: “Why should we care?”

We're asking you to tell us why species matter. Do you care?

Please encourage your website visitors to leave comments on this page:http://www.birdlife.org/community/2010/05/alaotra-grebe-extinction-do-you-care/


To read the full story, click here: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/05/red-list-for-birds-2010.html


Thank you for your support.

Nick Askew

Although many of us will not have heard of the Alaotra Grebe, it's extinction is symbolic not just because it is a bird.  Because it is a bird, it produces headline news and is treated with more significance but in the time that it has taken for this bird species to have been eradicated there have been hundreds if not thousands of other lifeforms that are gone.  Extinct.  For ever.  Extinction is a bit like pregnancy, you cannot be a bit pregnant, nor can you be a bit extinct.  For the Alaotra Grebe, that's it.  And we did it.  Shame on you.

Click on the links up there.  Read the story.  Put your name on the list.  Show, at the very least, that you care.

I find it a little ironic that less than a week after a scientist announces the creation of the first synthetic life form we have the announcement about extinction.  Would it not make more sense, on the whole, to try and keep hold of what we've got?