Emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal now endangered

Post by oopsiremembered » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #12

It’s terrible that the side effect of humans creating a world of wealth, safety and comfort (for all?) is that we risk destroying the very comfort we create - but it is also awesome that we have sufficient wealth to allow people to study these birds full time, enough wealth to build communication systems that tell random strangers about the threat they are under and hopefully enough time to correct the problem. I saw…

Post by moffkalast » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

Qem wrote: post #10

alsetmusic wrote: post #2

It’s surprising how much this headline affects me. Who doesn’t like penguins? And seals are nice, but penguins are so likeable. We’ve really ruined everything.

I get a bit of this looming feeling every time there is discussion about the Awk programming language, because it reminds me we already got the closest thing to a penguin in the nothern hemisphere extinct by the XIX century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk Hope this time around we do a better job of avoiding complete doom for these species.

Post by fiddeert » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

picafrost wrote: post #21

Life on this planet will be OK. Throughout geologic time countless species have gone extinct. The Anthropocene might be tragic for the natural world but not terminal. But: what are we trading it for? Higher living standards for more people is a noble and good but I don't think there's evidence it requires this rate of ecological destruction. Have we ever seriously tried to decouple growth from extraction? I'm not con…

Post by bluefirebrand » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

moffkalast wrote: post #24

Qem wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get a bit of this looming feeling every time there is discussion about the Awk programming language, because it reminds me we already got the closest thing to a penguin in the nothern hemisphere extinct by the XIX century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk Hope this time around we do a better job of avoiding complete doom for these species.

If a bird can't fly and isn't a super fast runner, they end up as food. Tale as old as time.

Post by bluefirebrand » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC

alsetmusic wrote: post #2

It’s surprising how much this headline affects me. Who doesn’t like penguins? And seals are nice, but penguins are so likeable. We’ve really ruined everything.