How do our genes really work? How does DNA know when to duplicate itself? It's amazing enough just to contemplate such things; but, oh, how humbling to realize that our 'superior' human species is not so very different genetically than chimps? Less than a .6% difference at that!
While I am very happy to know that at least this awareness will possibly "raise the chimps profile and potentially improve their conservation", helping to protect their species - it's not- a given. It's just too bad that we are so anthropocentric that it takes something like this to make us conscious enough to even consider that this species should be protected from extinction. Meanwhile, in 1998, "nearly seven out of 10 of the biologists polled said they believed a "mass extinction" was underway, and an equal number predicted that up to one-fifth of all living species could disappear within 30 years. Nearly all attributed the losses to human activity, especially the destruction of plant and animal habitats". http://www.well.com/~davidu/extinction.html It's a mind-boggling consideration, if that prediction is true, what life will be like on this planet in 20 more short years.
So, while we ponder the implication of whether humans and chimps sit on the same branch of the family tree, and what ramifications that has genetically; we best also consider changing our ecological habits in order to sustain the earth that the tree is planted in, or there will be nothing left to consider.
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