Gambling on extinction

George Monbiot.

It seems now that gambling on extinction is to become as common as betting on one horse besting another.

George Monbiot told the Guardian readers that the British gambling company, Ladbrokes, had been offering odds on the conservation of various fish stocks.

In the column: “Betting on Extinction”, Monbiot told readers, “Again and again over the past few decades, our fishing industry has clamoured noisily to cut its own throat, then responded with astonishment and fury when it collapses as a result. Is there a clearer example of being blinded to your long-term interests by short-term greed?”

So now it seems that in some bizarre sense, we can profit from species extinction, rather than be clearly worse off.