On the topic that ate LJ today

[geekchick]

No matter what you thought of the man personally (and I've seen plenty of people today both imply and state outright that "he got what he deserved" *twitch*), as dewhitton says: "He made people care about the animals, even the ugly ones. He saved patches of bush, even the useless stuff like rainforests and swamps. He got everyone thinking about the world we should be caring for." I think on the whole the world is a poorer place without him in it.

Comments

[carpee-diem.livejournal.com]

I agree, he was a pretty amazing guy. Not sure where the, "he got what he deserved" thing comes from. How do people come to the conclusion the guy needed to die? Just reflects our angry society.. yeow.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Whatever my problems with his methods, he did get people thinking about wildllife in new and exciting ways, which is always a good thing. It is a tragedy for him and his family.

[bungo.livejournal.com]

What struck me was Australians' embarrassed reaction to him. You'd think with our convict upstart mythology we'd welcome someone as exuberant and irreverent as Irwin. But seems like we'd have felt better about ourselves represented by a more restrained Sir David Attenborough type.

Now here's an embarrassing Australian: Sir Les Patterson.

I think on the whole the world is a poorer place without him in it.

Agreed.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

Most people probably considered him nothing more than a thrill seeker with a good publicity machine. I honestly never watched any of his shows, so I don't have much of an opinion. I talked to a friend of mine who does scuba dive regularly and has come to within 3 feet of stingrays, and posited that Irwin must have been VERY close to a large stingray for that to have happened to him. I am sorry this happened to him, but I also feel a certain renewed concern for my friends and co-workers who scuba dive regularly for a living.

[macropixi.livejournal.com]

I'll miss him. And while I often watched with the expectaion, nay HOPE that he would get bitten, I never wanted him to die.

But I can't say I was overly surprised. Except perhaps by the animal itself that did him in.