I'm With Stupid

The piece linked below is so heinous that I hesitate to post about it. Somehow, a George Washington University herpetologist has convinced the Washington Post that he has some expertise on evolutionary biology and the Sixth Extinction. But sweet Jesus, no, he has no idea what he's talking about.

Extinction is good! Extinction is natural! Stop making such a big deal about polar bears! My first reaction was to see whether this guy was somehow connected to the Climate Denial Industrial Complex, or maybe a buddy of Scott Pruitt. My second reaction was to check whether GMU has given him tenure yet. This article makes me despair for this guy's poor undergraduates.

Three random observations:

1. The author somehow fails to understand that ever creature alive today is the product of a lineage that did not go extinct. We're not the products of mass extinctions -- we're the products of creatures that survived those mass extinctions. How did he get a Ph.D. in biology without studying evolution?

2. The author repeatedly asserts that the only thing that matters is humans. "Extinction does not carry moral significance." That's hubris, baby. Hubris never ends well.

3. Even if, for the sake of argument, we accept the author's assertion that the only value of the world and its living things is to support human life ... he blithely assumes humans will control the world and bend it to their will. Last time I checked, in the battle between the world and humans, we're losing.

The Washington Post should be ashamed of itself for printing this piece of scientifically-illiterate garbage.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/we-dont-need-to-save-endangered-species-extinction-is-part-of-evolution/2017/11/21/57fc5658-cdb4-11e7-a1a3-0d1e45a6de3d_story.html?utm_term=.ae898f83de37