So, this is quite different from what normally goes up on gaming forums. Then again, it is the off topic section, and this is a very important issue.





Essentially, a drug called Diclofenac has recently become available in the European market. The drug itself is a painkiller, purely used for medical reasons, but the problem is that it is also incredibly toxic to vultures. A few decades ago, there were thousands of living in India, but then the drug came on sale. People fed it to their livestock, which of course eventually die. As goes nature, the vultures then proceed to eat the corpses. And die. All of them. The vultures in India died off at a rate far faster than even that of the dodo's extinction, as 1 mg of the drug is enough to almost instantly kill a fully healthy adult. Today, the country has little to no vultures, their numbers completely incapable of replenishing. As a result, rot and disease has run rampant, pollution has greatly increased, and the already threatened ecosystems of the country have rapidly degraded.



And now the drug is available in Europe. The people producing it are an Asian company, and while they are fully aware of its effects, they simply do not care. If this drug is allowed to be sold throughout Europe, every single vulture in Europe could be dead in less than two decades, which would spell the extinction of dozens of species, exclusively found in Europe. On top of this, eagles are occasional scavengers, and the drug also has the potential to annihilate them. Conservation efforts have only just begun to replenish their numbers, and this could render it all mute.



Pretty depressing, eh? Well, we can do something, maybe. Basically, we spotted the drug as soon as it entered the market, unlike in India, so we have a headstart. The dieoff has not begun yet, and there is still time to prevent it. If the EU issues a blanket-wide ban all across the continent, we may be able to prevent the extinction, so please, sign this petition, it is free, and considering that we only need less than a thousand now, you could literally save dozens of species from extinction.





https://www.change.org/p/janez-poto%C4%8Dnik-european-union-diclofenac-the-vulture-killing-drug-is-now-available-on-eu-market-ban-it-now#share

Vulture >People?

People? What do you mean? It is just a painkiller, there are plenty of equally cheap products that do exactly the same thing, so there is literally no reason to use it.

Trisdino wrote:
People? What do you mean? It is just a painkiller, there are plenty of equally cheap products that do exactly the same thing, so there is literally no reason to use it.

Ebola. I know it's a different topic, but shouldn't people concentrate their efforts of what's going on in west africa more.

That seems like horribly faulty logic, are you claiming that it is impossible for governments to focus on more than one thing at once? The EU medicine control department is not engaged in Ebola...

People should take responsibility for all of the world's problems, not concentrate on any one of them. Also, what logic would it be to feed your livestock painkillers? It would cost money and isn't the point of livestock to raise and kill for meat that people can sell to be consumed by humans? In my experience, humans (at least in America) don't care to eat meat from animals treated with chemicals.

Signed.



I didn't expect to find a thread about vultures in a gaming forum. Funny coincidence, because I like vultures.

Trisdino wrote:
That seems like horribly faulty logic, are you claiming that it is impossible for governments to focus on more than one thing at once? The EU medicine control department is not engaged in Ebola...

Faulty logic? governments have a hard time doing anything right in the first place.

Nasarog wrote:
Faulty logic? governments have a hard time doing anything right in the first place.

Assuming that everyone has the expertise to focus on one issue that's in despirate need of attention is indeed faulty logic, in my eyes.



Having a problem somewhere doesn't mean other people that have no clue about how to solve it should drop what they're doing to do... yeah.. what exacly? People that work for wildlive preservation can't really help with ebola; that doesn't mean that you don't have the right to find dealing with ebola more important than dealing with the death of vultures, as that is a decision a person most make for himself (though, well - in this comparission, we know what most people will find more improtant) - however claiming that other problems become less important to such a degree that they don't need attention, nah that's wrong.

Gotta agree with Adder on this one.

alexkidd wrote:
Signed.



I didn't expect to find a thread about vultures in a gaming forum. Funny coincidence, because I like vultures.

And +1 to that.



I don't know what we can do about it however. Though if the drug also has effects on eagles, I'm pretty sure a lot of activist movements and even some governments will act quickly on their own. Since, you know, eagles are kinda popular coat of arms animal

vultures are dying because of painkillers and meanwhile my neighboring states are popping up with Ebola cases, I think I'm a bit more concerned about my well being right now than vultures. You on the other hand can keep fighting the good fight and do what you can to spread the word.

Although I do not really have anything to say about this topic: for this kind of thread !

Ebola's in my state. Am I worried for myself? Not really. Am I worried about vulture populations? Not really? Am I worried about exams? Yes .



I'm also worried about my current governor...



May I add the best of luck to you with your petition. I believe people should begin to think about the impact on the environment, and Lord knows we've killed off enough species already

Nothing against anyones vultures or eagles or chickens.. but here is what I was going on about.



http://news.yahoo.com/un-botched-response-ebola-outbreak-134221982.html



How can they save a bird, when they massively fail to save people, and this would be by agencies that have no funding compared to the UN and WHO.

I never thought I would see the day when a person said "let us not do conservation because Ebola", but I suppose miracles do happen...

Trisdino wrote:
I never thought I would see the day when a person said "let us not do conservation because Ebola", but I suppose miracles do happen...

Missed my point completely.. I'm all for conservation, but they can't get their act together to do the big things, how badly will they do (and they do it often) with the small things.