Chickens, Spotted Owls, and Disappearing Forests - Economic Extinction?

Evolution tells us that...

New and different animals have evolved creating some of the most beautiful creatures known to man, while creationists believe that it all was created at one time. But once they go extinct, you have seen the last of a species.

As the title suggests, I will be contrasting several natural eventualities, starting with the spotted owls. We want to make sure there are spotted owls for our grandchildren to enjoy but I think we need to reverse our backward thinking. This came to me when my children asked, "Are chickens going to be extinct?" to which answered, "Certainly not. Chickens will never go extinct because farmers get up every day and feed the chickens, they house them in the winter, and take care of them." That seemed to put their minds at ease.

Buy it to save it

Farmers don't get up and take care of the chicken just because they are nice people.

There is an economic benefit to raising chickens, a demand for chickens, endless people willing to buy them and therefore, we will never run out of chickens. The same goes for cows, pigs, sheep, turkeys, etc. As long as we keep buying them, killing them and using them for our benefit, there will never be an extinction of chickens.

That's the way you save the chicken population.

So why is this idea so lost to the environmentalist? Why does the EPA not understand this?

The Spotted Owl

They say quite the reverse, saying "We love the spotted owl and would love to do it protect it." Now we have laws that say if you see a spotted owl on your property, you are not allowed to move it to move it, you are not allowed to touch it, and in fact, you're not allowed to build a house on your property if there is an owl inhabiting it. The spotted owl has claimed that land, and it is now natural habitat. The EPA will come and take over your property.

 The incentive is all wrong and the laws are not well thought out.

In response people kill them, of course it happens when nobody is looking. It is the logical thing to do. If you have a property worth $100,000 and an spotted owl starts hanging out in one of your trees, can you see what might be the result? The government will soon come down on you, designate your property to "sanctuary" status, and says you are not allowed to even build a shed on it.

You are not allowed to live there because there are endangered species living there. Not everyone would go as far as killing one of the last few spotted owls, but the incentive is there to wipe out at least that one bird who took over your land.

If you let the free market market handle it, the spotted owl could be sold to any number of interested parties. Do you think there are parties who would be happy to pay the price for a rare and beautiful species like this? Maybe a zoo would pay in order to have an attraction like that. The EPA could offer a reward for birds and put them on land where they could thive instead of spending money on staff to go chastise property owners. And what a surprise, property owners would naturally want to catch owls alive - There is value in a dead bird, right?

The idea is that one would naturally want to pay money in exchange for a species they are interested in. So, the way to save something is to buy it or give it an economic value. This ensures its survival.

Interestingly, my kids asked me, "What if the government finds a spotted owl on their property?" Well....

They never would tear down their house or building, but I know which one I would personally relocate my spotted owls to if the government had to adhere to the same standards they hold us to. Well, that is not the case . The hypocrites use force against us to accomplish their goals, which actually end up decreasing the spotted owl population.

Note: this argument and reasoning could be applied to other endangered animals.

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Recycling vs. Forestry and Replanting

Another point I would like to get to is the forests disappearing. Let's say that you don't like the consumption of paper. You want to protect trees and save them by reducing the manufacture of paper. What the environmentalist does in their total lack of understanding, is to create incentives to recycle paper by offering government subsidies to recyclers.

Now we have to create a recycling program, but what happens when you have recycled paper? The price of paper goes down. If there is more supply of paper, there is more competition for sales, of which, price is a huge factor. You have the nice, clean first run paper and then there is cheaper recycling paper. What happens when the price of paper goes down? The paper mill business cannot make a profit and then they go out of business. What happens when they go out of business? No new trees are planted for the production of paper.

Even before a business has to go out of business, they begin to see a decline in their profits because of the recycling program,which is subsidized by the government. Note that if it were not for the government interfering, the idea of paper mills and private recycling plants might work economically. But because of interference by the government, the price is now pushed down so low that...

 This is where the government says, "Great idea, let's do it!" 

In reality, the business mind continues to the bottom line. In fact, if a person owns a business on property that is growing thousands of trees for the production of paper, they replant as soon as they cut down the trees! They need to grow more trees so that they can sell more paper in the future. Environmentalists, via governmental interference, make that cycle unprofitable. But before the paper mill goes out of business, they look at alternatives, and weigh slumping profits against selling out to a real estate developer who can build hundreds of houses or maybe build a hotel resort. Recycling companies get all the paper sales, mill owners cash out for millions of dollars and everybody is happy. Right?

 Reality check - more forests lost. 

As forests dwindle, we have to consider that the recycling business, sponsored by our taxpayer money, is not doing as much good as you think it is doing!

Image Sources (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

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