Can anybody tell me why polar bears are important, besides the fact they look cool? I don't mean to sound crass. But it seems all of the attention goes to pretty butterflies, and pretty polar bears... because they're cool to look at.

I just get the feeling that a lot of people think helping the polar bears is an unselfish thing... when in reality, we're just focusing on saving the cutest animals(at the detriment of the rest).

I mean... if the polar ice caps are melting... they seem pretty screwed. It seems if they melt, they're dead. And it seems they're melting. So, what is the end game? Sure we can save a few... but maybe it's just best to let them go. Animals go extinct all the time... regardless of humanity.

Creative destruction is a thing. New species won't come if the old species are clogging up the food chain. Who are we to say what should live, and what should die(especially if the criteria for deciding what animals to save is how cute they are).

There's limited funds. Limited attention. Only so many spots on the front page. I just wonder if polar bears, and butterflies are really the most important animals going extinct, or if we should be worrying about some little ugly dung beetle that extinction will destroy the whole food chain.

I mean... imagine a world where humans weren't causing climate change, or pollution on a massive scale. Animals would still be going extinct every year. That's how evolution works. If anything, saving species may actually prevent new species from popping up.

Imagine if humans were in the age of the dinosaurs, and tried to save them all, and succeeded. What would be the result? No polar bears. We had to let the dinosaurs die, for polar bears to live. So, what animal are we preventing from coming to be, by saving the polar bear?