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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/24/hope-joy-absurdity-and-marvel-there-is-so-much-more-to-our-world-story-than-loss>
"The last great auk, it is said, was strangled unceremoniously in its sleep in
1844. Plump and penguin-like, the great auk had survived for hundreds of
thousands of years until humans discovered the utility of its soft down
feathers, eggs and meat. Great auks mate for life, and it was on Eldey island
in Iceland where the final pair on Earth met their fate at the hands of three
fishermen who fell upon them.
“I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled
him,” said the man who killed the last of a species.
Extinction is rarely loud. It is a whisper, so quiet you might just miss it.
The great auk wasn’t the first to fall to extinction at the hands of humanity,
and it certainly wasn’t the last.
So many more extinctions were to come, most of them going quietly, slipping
softly into the annals of obscure scientific journals. The smooth handfish. The
Yangtze river dolphin. The quagga. The Pyrenean ibex. The Chiriqui harlequin
frog. The Rocky Mountain locust.
This is the canvas upon which we etch our legacy today.
Welcome to the Anthropocene: the reign of the human."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
