Colorado

Man's inhumanity to man is well documented, but what about to other life forms? Do we just beat up on each other or are we really not that selective? Consider the following.

The largest known animal species to ever live is the blue whale, twice the size of Argentinosaurus, the biggest of the dinosaurs. In the early 1900's whalers, operating out of Grytviken station on the subantarctic island of South Georgia, butchered 25,000 baleen whales in 50 years. Many of them were blues, which are highly endangered as a result. In the process they killed a speciman that was 110 feet long and weighed nearly 400,000 pounds! The largest animal that has ever lived! The measuring techniques were crude at the time, yet remarkably accurate.

Abraham walked the earth when certain bristlecone pines first thrust their roots into the high rocky soil of California's White Mountains. These ancient pines are living ruins today, fittingly stunted and gnarled to look the part. Windblown ice and sand have scoured the wood smooth and beautiful, as if worked by the hand of god. The oldest known tree is Methuselah at 4800 years, making it the oldest living thing on earth. But Methuselah is new at being the oldest.

Once upon a time there was Prometheus, a bristlecone pine tree that lived in the same White Mountains. And there was a geologist in search of information about Ice Age glaciers, and was willing to do anything to get it. One day he was taking core samples from the bristlecone pines when he came upon a tree he knew to be very, very old. As he sampled the ancient tree his coring tool broke off. Rather than wait for another tool to arrive in a few weeks the man asked for, and received, permission from the U.S. Forest Service to fell the tree. That is to murder it with a chain saw. Prometheus proved to be 4,950 years old, the oldest known organism to ever live on earth-300 years old as the pyramids were being built in Egypt!

Neither the scientist, nor the Forest Service, the designated guardian of our forests, ever expressed remorse at this act. The public, however, expressed outrage, and so today the identity of the Methuselah tree is kept secret to prevent a similar fate.

The answer to our question is thus clear. Our callous disregard for life knows no bounds.

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Man's inhumanity to man is well documented, but what about to other life forms? Do we just beat up on each other or are we really not that selective? Consider the following. The largest known animal species to ever live is the blue whale, twice the size of Argentinosaurus, the biggest of the dinosaurs. In the early 1900's whalers, operating out of Grytviken station on the subantarctic island of South Georgia, butchered 25,000 baleen whales in 50 years. Many of them were blues, which are highly endangered as a result. In the process they killed a speciman that was 110 feet long and weighed nearly 400,000 pounds! The largest animal that has ever lived! The measuring techniques were crude at the time, yet remarkably accurate. Abraham walked the earth when certain bristlecone pines first thrust their roots into the high rocky soil of California's White Mountains. These ancient pines are living ruins today, fittingly stunted and gnarled to look the part. Windblown ice and sand have scoured the wood smooth and beautiful, as if worked by the hand of god. The oldest known tree is Methuselah at 4800 years, making it the oldest living thing on earth. But Methuselah is new at being the oldest. Once upon a time there was Prometheus, a bristlecone pine tree that lived in the same White Mountains. And there was a geologist in search of information about Ice Age glaciers, and was willing to do anything to get it. One day he was taking core samples from the bristlecone pines when he came upon a tree he knew to be very, very old. As he sampled the ancient tree his coring tool broke off. Rather than wait for another tool to arrive in a few weeks the man asked for, and received, permission from the U.S. Forest Service to fell the tree. That is to murder it with a chain saw. Prometheus proved to be 4,950 years old, the oldest known organism to ever live on earth-300 years old as the pyramids were being built in Egypt! Neither the scientist, nor the Forest Service, the designated guardian of our forests, ever expressed remorse at this act. The public, however, expressed outrage, and so today the identity of the Methuselah tree is kept secret to prevent a similar fate. The answer to our question is thus clear. Our callous disregard for life knows no bounds.

© Danny Kimberlin 2015