Save a Whale, Eat a Polar Bear

I’m in a quandary. Thanks to Al Gore the world has learned that Polar Bears are endanger of disappearing from the face of the earth due to global warming. Time, Newsweek, People, National Geographic magazines all publishing heartrending stories covering the soon to be extinct Polar Bear. The polar ice is melting at an alarming rate. Soon, the last Polar Bear will be swimming for his life. All this doom and gloom in spite of the fact that there is a ‘consensus’ , you progressives should have no argument here because I used the magic word, among scientist that the Polar Bear population is on the rise and has been since the mid 1950’s. In 1954, the year of my birth, the Polar Bear population was an estimated 5,000. As of 2008, the population was roughly 30,000 and rising. Thank God Mr. Gore brought the plight of these bears to our attention, but, their plight has not caused the turmoil within me. It’s the whales.

Save the whales! Save the whales! When I was a senior in high school it was stated as fact that within 20 years the whale would be extinct. Nations set aside their differences, came together for the good of mankind, except Japan, held conferences and outlawed whaling for the most part. If you were a member of Greenpeace, or even contributed, you were a god. You cared about the planet and its creatures. You were a good person. Any product derived from the death of a whale was banned. T-shirts were printed and sold. That, in and of itself, assured the safety of the whales. Or so we thought.

While watching Animal Planet with my youngest son this weekend, my world came crashing down around me. The show was about Iceland, its beauty, resources, climate, indigenous animals, that sort of thing. Near the end of the program the narrator stated one off-hand fact that shook me to the core. Polar Bears eat whales. Let me say that again so it will sink in. POLAR BEARS EAT WHALES. Oh! My! God!

I find I have lost all faith in nature and no longer trust the ‘natural order’ of the world we live in. I haven’t been this torn since I tried to decide whether to become a Methodist or Presbyterian. Man has expended so much time, money and energy to ensure the safety of the Polar Bear and the whale and now I find, one group is feeding on the other. How can this be so? Doesn’t the animal world realize that we, as men, know what’s best for them? We are the top of the evolutionary chain, if you will. Don’t these stupid animals understand our compassion, our angst, our zeal to protect all wildlife and the environment? Everything we’ve done has been for their good and they’ve ungratefully turned their backs, seemingly refusing our benefitiousness.

Or, could it be they could care less what our goals are and can take care of themselves just as they have long before we came along?