Unfettered Letters

The earth without us

In The Star’s FYI section of Jan 8 there is a picture projection of what Kansas City would look like if the human race becomes extinct.

What an exercise in futility and irrelevancy. If the human race becomes extinct — a distinct possibility if we continue to mismanage the earth — there will be no one to see what Kansas City looks like in 50 or 250 years. Or as some philosophers comment: If there is no one to see it, did it really happen?

Many scientists think we are on the road to extinction unless some radical action is taken by world governments to halt our degradation of nature.

Without the human race, nature will repair itself. Our earth will return to its pristine beauty. The land and the seas will once more teem with life. The air will be cleansed of toxicity. The waste and all other remains of human excesses will decay back into the earth. Only our species will not be around to observe it. A million years from now the imprint of our species will be all but gone, leaving possibly a few fossilized bones.

Tom English
Overland Park

Wolves and deer

I would be willing to bet that the two writers from Kansas who were bemoaning the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone have had no objections to deer being reintroduced in Kansas in the mid-’50s.
During the time that I was growing up in southeastern Kansas during the ’40s and ’50s, I spent a lot of time outdoors and never ever saw a deer. There were no car-deer accidents. Now hardly a week goes by without one.
Since their reintroduction, there have been many deaths, thousands of injuries and millions of dollars in damage caused by them. All this for the sake of a few who like to hunt!
While the wolves may cause monetary loss, I doubt that there will be any deaths or injuries to people caused by them.
Norman York
Kansas City, Kan.