Special Segment Talk!
Unlike the usual post, where we talks about the prehistoric animals by using data, this time, we will talk with interviewee about things that happens in the dinosaurs era and the relevancy with the current era. And yes, as you may have noticed from the earlier, we will be using English language for this special session. Let's deep dive to the interview, but first we may want to know the background of the person we want to interview for today!
Interviewee
Background:
Kyra is a Master’s
graduate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE),
holding a degree in Development Studies where she focused her research on the
intersectionality between human development and the natural environment. Now,
she works on international climate policy, collaborating with policymakers and
citizens alike to thrive for a just and equitable green transition. She is also
an avid fan of history and dinosaurs, traveling to museums throughout Europe in
her pastime.
1. people often
said that meteor was the main cause dinosaurs went extinct. but if we look on
the current environmental issues today, do the humans deserved to be labeled as
the "meteor" for the wildlife?
Certainly not, or at least, that’s not how I’d frame it. There is a growing sentiment to blame today’s environmental degradation entirely on humans, and although I can see how one can easily come to that conclusion, I would argue that it's a dangerous and narrow-sighted way to think of things. Historically, humans have co-existed with nature for thousands of years, and it was not until the start of the ‘industrial age’ did any significant damage was noted. Even today, many indigenous societies have continued to live on their ancestral teachings in order to preserve balance with their natural environment.
Hence, I believe it is not simply ‘humans’ who have become the “meteor” of today’s wildlife, but ‘late-stage capitalism’. To say that humans as an entirety are responsible would unjustly include many indigenous and grassroot communities who are not complicit to begin with.
2. as we all
knows, scientist wants to revive prehistoric animals like mammoths, sabretooth
tigers, and the others through genetic cloning. even we saw on the news that
the cloning process of the direwolf was successful. from your perspective, is
this can be considered as breakthrough innovation or a waste of funds? since
the money can be spent saving the currently endangered living species.
The answer might depend on who you are asking, but personally, I would much prefer for the funds to be used on current conservation and protection efforts. Not to deny that the revival of one extinct species would be a massive breakthrough in science, not at all. But I’d imagine the same amount of funds would go a much longer way in protecting the wildlife we have now. Many wildlife conservation efforts throughout the world still face large funding issues, on top of other challenges such as illegal poaching, legal loopholes, and conflicts with the local population.
Moreover, the world
has been able to cope with the extinction of these prehistoric species. In
fact, the re-introduction of these species back to the wild might cause
imbalance in the natural order and disrupt the current food chains. Similarly,
losing a currently endangered species might cause the same issues. Hence why it
is essential that we do what we can to preserve our current natural order and
balance.
3. People can get easily hyped over a t-rex that died millions of years ago, but when they are faced with topics such as the wild tigers, or rhinos that are facing extinction, they seem to be just fine. why is it so hard to make the public care about endangered animals? What can we do?
I think it's the combination between a lack of education on wildlife conservation, and the rise of conflicting interests. Economic hardships may encourage people to do work that involves the hunting or killing of local wildlife. Let’s look at Indonesian elephants as an example. Elephants follow the same migration route passed down by generations. However, these routes are now blocked by industrializations and electric fences. The people who do this might not have the direct desire to harm these elephants, but they do so in pursuit for better financial incomes in an already unstable economy. This is followed by a lack of education on conservation. Many people do not realize that nature is interconnected, and that the disappearance of one species would cause ripple effects throughout the local ecology.
Moreover, we grew
up knowing that dinosaurs are extinct, so it has become our norm. Same goes
with today’s wildlife, we grow up knowing that they’re there, and we don’t
expect them to simply disappear. But the reality is that many of these species
we’ve come to familiarize ourselves with, like tigers, elephants, and even many
insects, are now at the precipice of extinction.
4. Herbivorous
dinosaurs require massive forest areas to eat and survive. drawing parallels to
wildlife in Indonesia today, how difficult is it to find remaining forests safe
for them to roam without hitting mines or palm oil plantations?
I mean, you don’t need to look too far to see the impacts it would have for dinosaurs. Look at the state of our largest land-dwelling herbivores of today, the elephant. The Sumatran Elephant is listed as’critically endangered’, and even those protected in Way Kambas national park still risk being illegally hunted.
Now, both the
Kalimantan and Papua rainforest are facing critical levels of deforestation,
threatening the majority of its local flora and fauna. This is exacerbated by
the development of the new Indonesian capital IKN as well as the country’s
increased demand for palm-oil based biofuels. Unless swift action is done from
the policy level, then I can’t help but feel discouraged at the possibility of
any herbivorous dinosaurs flourishing, let alone our current wildlife.
5. dinosaurs left some cool traces in the form of bone fossils to be studied millions of years later. What legacy do you think modern humans will leave for future researchers?
I think people think too far on what kind of legacy would survive far into the future. Sure we have the great Pyramids and Borobudur which have lasted for more than a millennia, but we should also remember the smaller things. We have a surviving stone tablet from 1750 BC on a customer complaint of the quality of copper sold by the merchant Ea Nasir. Paintings on the depiction of religious pilgrimage during the Byzantine Empire, to the fossilized half-eaten bread from Pompeii. At the end of the day, monuments rise and fall, history gets distorted by whoever is in power, but I’d like to believe that the so-called ‘small’ and ‘insignificant’ parts of our daily lives is what will speak the loudest for years to come. This is why it is so important to continue supporting the work done by anthropologists and historians alike.
That's all for the debut post for the segment, we do enjoy the discussion regarding the topics, and maybe for the next post, we will broaden our topics so it won't be limited only to the dinosaurs, maybe more into the eras, or maybe shifting into ancient-ancient animals or mythology?
Also one more thing, Kyra also has a social media, mainly instagram where she also does art, she also recently starts opening commission as well. She specialized in doing 2D anime-stylized illustration. So if there's any of you guys who interested in commissioning her, be sure to check her instagram or X both at @papercats_art
Thank you everyone for reading this post and we'll see you on another chance!
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