Although he was terribly 'uncool' from the perspective of wildlife = ecologists, I do think that Steve Irwin did more towards disseminating = curiousity about the natural world and love of nature than the whole lot = of them put together. Even when I go to do fieldwork in Malaysia, every = ordinary person has heard of him, and kids know about the animals he = talked of, plus the need to respect nature and be cautious of it. His = message has spread around the world, educating and changing minds where = it is especially important. And they can see the difference between the = stunts he was doing and what makes sense in real life: people are really = not as dumb as some our academic colleagues think they are. =20
Yes, he bent the rules and sometimes it was kind of excruciating to = watch. But he gave people a chance to learn.
