Introspecting Interconnections

 

This Endangered Animals Meet-up entailed plenty of unanswered questions at the beginning. Questions like: “What is evolution?”, “Are humans also animals?”, “Is “speciesism” justified? and, “Is there a connection between ecological biodiversity and human existence?” The answers to these questions were formulated through a series of innovative knowledge-induced videos and opinions towards the same. 

 

The first video played by the host was the glorification of ‘a starfish walking on the beach’ by the people who witnessed the incident. This was the introductory exemplification of “speciesism”. A Vongster reflected on it and said, ‘We don’t look at cockroaches the same way. We don’t video them when they’re walking. This is prejudice towards exotic species.’ It was followed by a video on the evolution of human beings starting from 4100 million years ago; all the way to the “Homosapiens.” It constituted how human beings had a myriad of forms, ranging from bacteria, to worms, to species climbing trees as well as walking on the ground, to apes and finally to their most evolved and apex forms. At the end of the video, a Vongster retorted, ‘We dominate because we evolved.’

 

At this juncture, the concept of “Survival of the Fittest” by Charles Darwin was brought forward- The Homosapians survived so, they dominate all kinds of species. There was a shift in the conversation among the Host and the Vongsters about, “right to choose in terms of consumption of food” and various innovative thoughts were put forward on the table, one of which was, “Humans are put into jail for killing other human beings but not animals.

 

However, at the end the conversation was circled back to the very last video on “Keystone” species- “Keystone species by definition is an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem. Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist all together”- National Geographic. This popped up a question: “Why are human beings the keystone species of the Earth?” Simply because they have the power to control and a dominance that is all-pervasive. 

 

This meet-up left us not only enriched with new pieces of knowledge and facts but also left us feeling whole with a bunch of inquisitions that were responded to.