The simple truth is that americans care about the environment, until it effects them. The fact of the matter is that I live in a bigger apartment than I need, I drive more than I should, and I own all kinds of things that I don't need. We're not content to live in naturalistic huts and forage, farm, and hunt for food. We destroy the world with our need for material things.
I'm not pretending to be above it, I'm an active participant in it.
My problem is that "Green" is trendy right now, and is a far bigger business than it is anything that accomplishes good. For example, its great that the new apple laptops are made out of more recyclable materials, but that isn't going to stop me from getting a new one every year, when in all reality it would serve my needs for 3+ years, and in the bigger picture is something that I don't need to survive.
I have a point. My point is that we can't blame the Koreans or Madagascar for wanting their piece of the pie. Its tragic, its sad, but its going to happen. If it doesn't happen this time, it will the next time somebody makes a more compelling offer.
All of our conservation efforts will eventually be in vain, as the human race is a destructive force that will not stop until we reach a point where we can't sustain ourselves and collapse. We have a fixed amount of resources, and an inherent selfish desire for self preservation.
This hobby is a great micro example of that nature. Most of us would claim to be in this hobby for a love of the animals. That's a blatant lie. We are in this hobby because we love what the animals do for us. We like the feeling that we get by keeping these creatures on personal display for us. If we truly cared about the animals, we would have nothing to do with the pet industry and its mass slaughter of wildlife. Even captive bred animals would clearly be better off in the wild. We keep them because we're selfish, and they amuse us. We get off on the power of another life being dependent on us. The number of these animals killed in transport from the wild alone should make us want nothing to do with it. To top it off we manufacture toxic light bulbs and little plastic vines, plants, misting nozzles, cages, etc. to help pollute the planet and aide in our quest to hold these animals captive. We burn through extra electricity, and process more water than we would without the hobby but, I'm not quitting any time soon. I like my chameleons in their cages, and I'm certainly not paying for shipping back to madagascar.
