This is nonsense. Does Dr. Patton really believe that Darwin's finches
speciated millions of years ago? Some archipelagos that resulted from recent
volcanic activity have different species on each island, and I am reasonably
confident that if one of those species were to go extinct, it would not take
long for a closely related species to fill its niche.
We certainly have enough information about the numerous extinctions that
have occurred during recent history to develop reasonable ideas about "which
secrets will be important today or tomorrow." Some isolated environments,
such as Hawaii, have suffered extensive extinctions and exotic
introductions, so we can certainly use the resulting data to make good
guesses about the dynamics of niches.
While I agree that "each lost species is a monument to our stupidity", some
monuments are bigger than others. The loss of a unique keystone species like
the polar bear would be a monument greater than the Collosus of Rhodes. The
loss of one of David Lack's stratified warblers on the other hand would be
tragic, but I doubt that it would have catastrophic ecosystem impacts.
The point I am trying to make is that our niche is expanding, and although
we should try to mitigate our impacts, further extinctions are inevitable.
After all, even before there were humans on earth there were ongoing
extinctions. I think that we should focus on identifying and protecting key
species, rather than simply saying that all species are of equal importance
and thus letting matters proceed without ecological judgement.
The situation is similar to a battlefield - although it is generally agreed
that all human life is precious, battlefield physicians have long realised
that not every injured soldier can be saved, so they have developed a system
of triage to identify where medical intervention is most likely to be
successful. We should fight extinctions everywhere, but focus our efforts on
where we think we can do the most good.
Bill Silvert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoffrey Patton" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: domingo, 22 de Novembro de 2009 23:27
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Insignificant species?
Each existing species on the planet is the result of millions of years of
intensive evolution and selection pressure. As I used to tell my high school
ecology students, each species has at least one secret that allows it to
occupy some unique niche. We have no idea which secrets will be important
today or tomorrow. To lose any species is a failure of our species to
acknowledge ours and their place in the global ecosystem. In other words,
each lost species is a monument to our stupidity
Cordially yours,
Geoff Patton, Ph.D. 2208 Parker Ave., Wheaton, MD 20902 301.221.9536
