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Steve's message will live on - he made the ultimate sacrifice
September 8, 2006 by Anonymous, 3 years 9 weeks ago
Comment id: 2740
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We are all too complacent about our environment and extinction due to habitat loss. It’s too easy to sit around watching your HD TV in your air conditioned house watching “nice†civilized environmentalist that stay far away from animals telling you how great they live, in the wilderness. What wilderness? Most of those films take place in wilderness preserves.
These animals are dying every day from poachers, from habitat destruction, war and more. There is no time for “nice†shows that lie to us that we will be able to see these animals ever again. The film is all that we will have left if things continue as they have.
When audiences are mislead like that, there is no sense of urgency or shock, they vote to build even more condominiums and vote down preserves. Now that is real harassment of animals, being run over by cars, their food sources destroyed, their livelihood taken away from them.
Steve really wrestled with the problem of conservation, and was dangerously close to the problem ironically, and placed himself in harm’s way to make a point, to make us pay attention.
The alligators in his zoo lived well, bathed in clean water and were better fed than millions of children around the world that are starving today due to environmental devastation and war. These crocks are not really just ambassadors for their own species, educating audiences to assure their survival. They are our own salvation.
Most people don’t see the connection but if a snake or a crocodile cannot survive in today’s world, after 200 millions years on earth, there is certainly no hope for us humans is there?
So Steve Irwin was not shouting to us EXTINCTION WARNING WARNING EXTINCTION – he was warning us of our own demise unless we do something.
Some might think the Stingray got him because he was taking revenge on Steve, but those of us that think there are other forces in nature, of a higher order, might think the Stingray killed him so Steve could make the ultima sacrifice for the sake of our environment and these animals, so we may finally pay attention and take notice. I believe so. We will miss Steve but his message will not die with him.