Paleoanthropology indicates that other human-like creatures coexisted with our own species but are now all extinct. Today we have primate relatives, but the BBC article below indicates that they are well on the road to extinction due to human capitalist development. Of course any economic system that is unsustainable will destroy part of the ecosystem, but it is the infernal glory of capitalism that almost all species other than man and rats will perish as we become more and more "productive", as we make more and more profits for more and more investors.
Unless the capitalist system is qualitatively changed or replaced these primate brethren are doomed. Who will take on the economic machine that is destroying the very ecosystems that give us and all creatures the capacity to live and produce or consume anything at all. We are now and shall forever be children of nature and the longer we continue to ignore the consequences of capitalist economic devlopement the worse will be the outcome for our primate brethren and ourselves.
It is a life and death struggle not only for these primates but also for primate homo sapien to
change the course of the economic engines that are destroying the capacity of our planet to sustain life as we know it. Microorganisms on the other hand will do just fine. Perhaps they will
inherit an earth ravaged by "free enterprise" and imperialist wars.
Let's stop being slobs. Lets replace this unsustainable economic system with something that allows for a human future and a future for our primate brethren.
| By Steve Jackson BBC News |
The report says many apes, monkeys and other primates are being driven from the forests where they live or killed to make food and medicines.
The research is being presented at the International Primatological Society (IPS) on the Chinese island of Hainan.
It was compiled by a team of 60 experts led by the World Conservation Union.
Asia threat
The report focuses on the fate of the world's 25 most endangered primate species, which are threatened by a depressing list of problems.
The authors say all the surviving members of these species combined would fit in a single football stadium.
Of particular concern are the Hainan gibbon from China and Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey from Ivory Coast, both of which have only a few surviving creatures left in the wild.
The report says the threat to primates is worst in Asia where tropical forests are being destroyed and many monkeys are being hunted or traded as pets.
It also argues that climate change is making some species more vulnerable.
Scientists have been warning for decades about the growing human threat to animal species around the world, but this study says we should be especially concerned about primates because they are the closest living relatives of humans.
