We engineer our demise

THE northern white rhino is on the verge of extinction, thanks to man.

Sudan, the last male northern white rhino is dead, leaving just two female rhinos of this subspecies alive. All that remains of Sudan now is a vial of semen with which scientists hope to bring back the magnificent pre-historic creature from the dead. We should all hang our heads in shame and curse the day we set foot on this beautiful planet.

There are over seven billion of us and we couldn’t let a few thousand, nay, a few hundred, northern white rhinos live alongside us. How could civilised man have driven the northern white rhino and so many other wonderful creatures to extinction?

As William Wordsworth once said, we are “out of tune” with the world. “Getting and spending, we lay waste” to the earth, devouring the earth’s resources like a swarm of locusts. Nothing on land or sea we leave untouched. We take everything for ourselves.

But, ironically, if we wipe out all the creatures on earth, we could end up destroying ourselves.

As savage as the Red Indians were portrayed to be, they knew the importance of living in harmony with nature.

In 1854, Chief Seathl, appalled at the slaughter of millions of buffalo on the prairies, wrote a letter to the leader of the civilised white race, President Franklin Pierce, to stop this mindless massacre:

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts are gone,

Man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.

For whatever happens to the beast, Also happens to man.

All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the Earth

Also befalls the sons of the Earth. THYGARAJ MARKANDAN

Silverglen

PICTURES: OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY INSTAGRAM Sudan, the last male northern white rhino left in the world, died lastweek.although his death has brought the northern white rhino to the brink of extinction, a Gofundme campaign has been set up to assist with technological innovations that could save...