Column by Manning Pastor Sam Livingston: Endangered species in America
All across the world, there are animals threatened with extinction because of humanity and the climatic changes from global warming. We read of so many animals from the ice age that are no longer here because of the changes of temperature and other factors. How many of us would have loved to see a dinosaur strutting at a zoo? We can only imagine what these huge creatures would have looked like based on animated pictures derived from their skeletal systems. We really don't know for sure which was here first: man or these prehistoric creatures.
You can retrieve endangered species lists from any country and find a listing of animals and plants that are on the verge of being extinct.
The Australian list includes the black-flanked rock wallaby. In Germany, the list includes the European mink. In France, the list includes the Mediterranean monk seal. In Africa, the list includes the Ethiopian wolf. The most endangered large mammal in the world is the Javan rhinoceros, with only 58 to 68 left in the wild. The reasons for such low numbers are the loss of habitat after the Vietnam War and poachers killing them for their horns. They can only be seen today in the National Park of Ujung Kulon in Java, Indonesia.
The common denominator associated with the extinction of any animal or plant species seems to go back to one creature, man. Somehow man will always find a way to screw up what God perfectly created and developed. We kill animals for their fur, horns, tails, head, etc. We take their natural habitat and construct buildings and roads. We destroy the plants' ecology through pollution and fires. We are destroying the ozone layer. Humans are the major contributors to global warming. Since the 18th century, greenhouse gas emissions and human activities have been the major causes of global warming.
The United States of America is desperately trying to add a species to its endangered list every hour of the day. We are doing it in some very creative ways, and for the most part, it is working. We create friction between the members within the species so that they will be at odds with each other and slowly kill one another.
Programs are designed to make sure that they only get enough to barely survive. They are killed by vigilantes. Specially trained agents called policemen are used to kill them, and they get patted on the back for doing it. They are captured and caged for life. Sometimes they get tagged and placed back into the wild only because it is understood that they will not survive.
Tracking devices are placed on them in their natural habitat. At a later date, the natural habitat is redeveloped into something that satisfies the accuser. We value any other species above this one. The U.S. Constitution said that this species was only 3/5 of the other species in its class.
If the powers that be can have their way, this species will be eliminated on purpose with a small amount left to be viewed in a few national land sites.
I have added a picture of what this species looks like. So if you come across any of them, please don't kill them. They are at the top of the United States Endangered Species List. Once again, here is what they look like.
Some of them are much lighter in complexion and others are much darker, but their skin pigmentation will be black or brown. Please refrain from killing them because they are on the North American endangered species list. They are endangered in other countries also but critically endangered in the United States.
Genesis 1:26-27: "And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Sam Livingston is pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Manning.