My name is Jaryd, I am a final year student reading towards a BSc in Genetics. I am, however, an evolutionary biologist.
"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" (Dobzhansky, 1973).
I have been at the University of Cape Town for 5 years now, and after a 2.5 year bout with Actuarial Sciences (It won), I moved to a BSc in Genetics. Now, at the point of this move, I was a raving creationist, for goodness sake, I was quoting Kent Hovind on a virtual daily basis, now that is a Mortifying Reflection.
So what changed me?
I took a course in Human Evolution (Purely because I thought it would be fun to argue), run through the Archaeology department and taught by a Biological Anthropologist. It was eye opening, to say the least. Within 1 week, the lecturer had answered all my questions concerning evolution and creation. I mean, thank God, and "I choose that word advisedly" (Dawkins, 2009) and well after that, the rest is history, in the past 25 months, I have never been without a course in evolution.
This slow, gradual change over 25 months has been a truly "Triumphal" (Dawkins, 2009) stage of growth for me, I shudder to think where I would be currently, and for a better point, who the hell would I be?
Streuth, that is a terrifying thought, I am now a Temporary Agnostic in Practice (Dawkins, 2006), I honestly don't know if there is a God or not, but again, my religious views will be explored in time...
What I do want to comment on is the recent New Scientist article 'Can spotting dead polar bears add up to misconduct?" http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128244.600-can-spotting-dead-polar-bears-add-up-to-misconduct.html
Please read it before continuing...
Now, if you can condone this, please let me know how... As far as I am concerned, this is an obvious ploy by the Big Oil companies to set up drills in Alaska, and doing this by shutting up a scientist. I didn't think this was possible in today's world. I am disgusted.
Now, I can see why the oil companies want to get into Alaska, it is estimated that there are 16 billion barrels of oil under the state. That is approximately $12 176 493 112.57 in income working from projected prices for between 2006 and 2027. 12 Billion dollars, blimey, selling our planet for a mere 12 billion dollars, at current exchange rates that's 87 billion rand, what the hell is big oil thinking. Basically, we are at a cross roads here, where will this insanity end.
It costs in the order of $20 million to set up a drilling plant. so there will be a huge revenue for any oil company that "conquers" Alaska
Apparently the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), holds 7.7 billion barrels of oil which will be 1.2% of the world's oil requirements in 2030 within 19 million acres. This new find will not reduce the cost of oil as OPEC will continue to set their own prices and only release oil to maximise their own profit.
It may be argued as to the small size of the drilling, but look exactly where it is. It can be seen the proposed drilling site lies on the tundra, this has the ability to destroy many native species, including the migration routes of the caribou.
There is already substantial drilling in Alaska, with 1.8 million barrels being produced daily, to put that into perspective, it's approximately 25% of US total oil production. This is from the 2 largest oil fields in America, namely Prudhoe Bay and Kuparak River.
For any more information on Alaska, check out http://www.alaskaheritage.com/FAQ/aboutalaska.htm#oil
Anyways, better make myself a cup of tea
Keep thinking,
For your interest:
http://www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com/acs/images/stories/docs/Polar%20Bears-ExtendedOpenWaterSwimmingMortality.pdf
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