Dolphins and sea turtles washing up on our shores dead. Birds preening themselves to death. The aftermath of BP's oil spill is heart rending. I believe the animal kingdom knows that at this moment, at this point in time mankind is the dominant species. I believe they know this and that they naively trust that, although we have all this power, we will ensure that their world and their lives are not destroyed. They have no choice but to believe that we cherish this beautiful planet as much as they do.
They can't see that we will destroy everything for the sake of money and making our lives more convenient. They can't see that a bunch of guys with freaking spreadsheets and databases have the power to sign a death warrant for a huge number of species just because they'll make a couple billion more dollars. I feel so helpless and I'm terrified that with all the power of the human species we cannot stop ourselves and we can't fix the devastation we leave around us. BP, et.al, has billions and billions of dollars and all the power in the world but they don't have the power to clean up their own mess. They will, however, continue after this and use all of that power and all of that money to make more messes. How is a poor dolphin, sea turtle, pelican or sperm whale supposed to compete with that? It makes me think of one of the closing lines from the movie Fargo. All this devastation of human and animal life for a little bit of money.