Macquarie Island

Macquarie is a sub-Antarctic island about 1500 kilometres south of Tasmania and a critical breeding ground for seabirds, including four endangered species of albatross, and delicate plant systems. It also serves as a unique geological snapshot of the world's evolution, a record of life.

Over recent years, the rabbit population has increased massively, and their tunnelling and overgrazing is resulting in poor soil integrity, and consequently, land -and hill- slides that are killing king penguins and destroying albatross nests. The rapidly growing rat and mice population is also consuming penguin and bird eggs, causing a fast decline in their numbers.

The Tasmania environment minister and international World Heritage committee from the World Wildlife Fund is pledging to put resources into training hunting dogs and placing other measures to counter the growing rodent and rabbit problem on the island.

As much as I support the concerns mankind has for the ecosystem, I believe that intervention to preserve endangered species only serve to make them... more endangered. Protecting a species under attack by a predator or hostile environmental condition (the landslides, flash floods etc) distrupts the course of nature, and prevents evolution and natural selection from taking place. Once the rabbits/rats/mice have been taken care of, the birds that develop natural defences against these predators, like having eggs with stronger shells, will not be selected for. These birds will only be able to inhabit that island, and will not survive if they try to move to another habitat.

Evolution is an on-going process. Everything moves forward. Change is inevitable and necessary.

Which is why I believe the quest to become immortal is a futile one because immortality is an irony.

Once man becomes immortal, he will be constant and stagnant. Evolution will progress without him, leaving him susceptible to the wrath of nature.