I was an accounting major taking a a class on foundations of sustainability.
I thought itwas going to be on businesses and making them sustainable for future growth.
Nope, all environmental.
The first class he offered the argument on saving the whales, penguins and polar bears and shit.
Along the lines of the extinction of whales would cause surplus in other fishes and would throw our ecosystem into shock or some other crap.
And then he brought up how they should outlaw the hunting of them.
I kept my mouth shut for that.
Then he had the balls to bring up that no one wants to see such beutiful critters such as penguins to go extinct and that their beauty is what makes their life worth preserving.
Thats where I split my shit.
I raised my hand, of course.
After calling on me, the first words out of my mouth were, "how good do they taste, because I would hunt the hell out of some penguins if I could."
I realized the simplicity of my remark and continued on.
The beauty of an animal shouldnt dictate its survivability, if a creature is meant to die out it should.
I brought the argument to humans with certain health issues.
I used my own blindness as an example. If I was to be hit by a car that I hadnt seen and died, my life wasnt meant to be.
And then I went back to the whales.
Hunting them to extinction may cause their extinction may cause a surplus of other species, yes.
However, that surplus would in turn be hunted by humans for their use.
Again, personal example.
Local jurisdiction had led to the loss of many predators in our area.
This led to a surplus in the deer population.
We in turn had a rise in the amount that could be hunted in our area.
Local government earned morein the sale of tags, locals filled their fridges, population controlled.

Suffice to say, I made few friends in that class full of hippies