A Coronavirus Vaccine Could Kill Half a Million Sharks, Conservationists Warn

Post by esperent » Sun, Oct 11, 2020, 10:31 PM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #102

esperent wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a lot. Even if you're a die hard animal rights activist, can't you see that 3.2 million deaths from a population of a hundred million (say) is a much smaller deal than 3.2 million from a population of ten million? One means possible extinction of a species, the other does not.

I'm not talking about extinction. I'm talking about suffering and death on a large scale only because of cosmetics.

Post by megous » Mon, Oct 12, 2020, 1:55 AM UTC

_vbdg wrote: post #61

megous wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use slightly more expensive other source of the same substance? It's like killing whales for oil just to burn it instead of using olive oil, or that stuff pumped from the ground and refined, or whatever. (as was done at various points in history) Kinda annoying how many people take this issue to mean "kill sharks or humans will die" when it's just about money.

There's also the concern of immediate availability, i.e. if shark-derived squalene is available today and the plant-derived version takes time to scale, we can't just start using that if we want to mass-produce a vaccine very quickly.

Post by yostrovs » Mon, Oct 12, 2020, 9:43 AM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #24

yostrovs wrote: post #3

The squalene in question that's derived from sharks has been used for decades. I've never heard of it before. Only now I do when it could be used to save untold human lives. Really?

You seem to imply that the use for the vaccine is something extra-objectable but the shark protection project objects to its use in general [0]. Regarding your other statements: catching 20% more sharks than before [1] sounds actually newsworthy. Furthermore you will have heard of a negligible number of all the things in existence before, no matter how well-read you are - so not having heard about something is hardly…

Post by superkuh » Tue, Oct 13, 2020, 3:15 PM UTC

jagger27 wrote: post #70

superkuh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more of a matter of human population expanding to cover the entire surface of the earth than anything else. There's no evidence the last SARS outbreaks in China was from wet markets. Much like there's no evidence it was from wet markets this time. Fish are very stupid animals without much brain. It is definitely worth it to kill 500k of them to help save a bunch of human lives.

Excuse the ad hominem, but did you miss the food chain class in elementary school? “Very stupid” has exactly “fuck all” to do with how important they are to the ecology of the oceans. If the ocean food chain collapses, there’s no coming back from that for millennia. Like, what? This compound is found in wheat! Wheat!