Should the Boidem also be protected?
It was thirty five years ago, on this day, that the (U.S.) Endangered Species
Act was signed into law. This law (as explained in Wikipedia)
was rather all-encompassing:
The stated purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to protect species and also "the ecosystems upon which they depend." It encompasses plants and invertebrates as well as vertebrates. It does not expressly include fungi, which were widely considered to be plants in 1973.
Numerous species that may not have been in danger of extinction back then have
become so today, though it seems that the Bush administration, rather than adding
those additional species to the list, has been finding ways of getting some of
the original ones off.
The Boidem most certainly isn't a species, but I've wondered numerous times in
the past whether today, when the internet has become an inseparable part of our
lives, a column that attempts to examine its influence still has much meaning,
or whether it's also approaching extinction.
Go to: Virtual worlds, and real health.