RE: paleonet Burgess Shale Fossil Theft

[Bill Chaisson <chaisson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:30 PM +0300 9/4/01, Bob Keeley wrote:
>It is a shame that someone has to overreact to a report concerning a 
>shale fossil theft.
>
>On the scale or drugs versus fossils then clearly the emphasis must 
>be the war on drugs - no question.  I can also think of many other 
>crimes/social ills etc that I would put ahead of a stolen fossil.  I 
>have no doubt that the vast majority of people have the same 
>priorities when considering drugs verses fossils.

Trying to stop drug use in the United States by attacking the 
suppliers is a misguided and hopeless task.  I have seen no survey 
results that show that "the vast majority of people" believe that the 
"war on drugs" should be continued with its present emphasis.

Trying to stop people from stealing public property may be hopeless, 
but I don't think that it is misguided.  Fossils are part of a shared 
natural heritage.  ANWR is another piece of our shared natural 
heritage and a lot of people seem to be upset about even the 
possibility of damaging that.  After the damming of Glen Canyon it 
was realized that damming the Grand Canyon might not be such a great 
idea.  More germane to the fossil issue is the case of the dinosaur 
footprints that abound in the eastern Mesozoic rift basins.  These 
were being torn up and sold for patio paving for decades before parks 
were created to prevent people from doing so.  Creation of the 
preserves has slowed, but not stopped, pilfering of footprints in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Protection of fossils with laws and 
preserves sends the message that they are not a commodity.  It makes 
it that much more difficult people to treat them as such.

The only way to de-commodify drugs is to decriminalize their use.  I 
don't expect to see that happen anytime soon and I don't see the 
analogy to fossil-thievery.

Bill

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William P. Chaisson         
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester                                    ph  716-275-0601
Rochester, New York  14627  USA                   fax  716-244-5689

http://www.earth.rochester.edu/chaisson.html