Hunting and Conservation
As hunting declines, so do conservation funds.
I have told and told and told people, when animals cease to be useful to humans, they cease to exist. Humans protect what they want. If they want ducks and deer, they will set aside habitat for them. Hunters get out and see the environment, see it changing -- they notice if things are wrong. People in cities go from house to car to building and may never bother to visit a park. They don't see it. Hunters know the weather's changing because they are out in it and the game timing is changing too. Most other people don't. What they don't see, they don't love; what they don't love, they don't protect.
Well, here it is: as people hunt less, they become disconnected more, and support wildlife less. They are not, for instance, transferring funds once spent on hunting to some other wildlife fund. Maybe they're spending it on video games or veganmeat, but the point is, they're no longer spending it on wildlife. That is a big problem. The government is spending less on conservation at a time when we need to spend much more. And with the threats to the food supply from climate change, we damn well better know how to hunt and forage if we want to eat. Or it'll be like that TV show where people risked death to raid for canned goods when there were dandelions and rabbits as far as the eye could see.
I have told and told and told people, when animals cease to be useful to humans, they cease to exist. Humans protect what they want. If they want ducks and deer, they will set aside habitat for them. Hunters get out and see the environment, see it changing -- they notice if things are wrong. People in cities go from house to car to building and may never bother to visit a park. They don't see it. Hunters know the weather's changing because they are out in it and the game timing is changing too. Most other people don't. What they don't see, they don't love; what they don't love, they don't protect.
Well, here it is: as people hunt less, they become disconnected more, and support wildlife less. They are not, for instance, transferring funds once spent on hunting to some other wildlife fund. Maybe they're spending it on video games or veganmeat, but the point is, they're no longer spending it on wildlife. That is a big problem. The government is spending less on conservation at a time when we need to spend much more. And with the threats to the food supply from climate change, we damn well better know how to hunt and forage if we want to eat. Or it'll be like that TV show where people risked death to raid for canned goods when there were dandelions and rabbits as far as the eye could see.