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#11
26-08-2004, 08:48 PM
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"Kay" wrote in message ... In article , Tumbleweed thisaccountneverr writes "Kay" wrote in message ... In article , BAC writes "Kay" wrote in message ... In article , Franz Heymann notfranz. writes It would be unwise for a pragmatist like me to say yes or no to such a possible false generalisation. There are circumstances where I would be prepared to participate in the eradication of some species in certain places for the sake of humans, or domesticated animals, for example Prickly pears for the sake of grazing field The common cold virus Malaria-carrying mosquitoes Bracken in the Lake District Hedgehogs in N Uist and Benbecula Cats on Marion Island Well, out of that lot, nos 1, 5 and 6 could be regarded as putting things right after introduction of species to places where they don't belong, What do you mean by 'places where they don't belong'? They didn't get there without human intervention. Whether it "didnt belong there' is a human value judgement. Had, in pre-human times, a chance event carried prickly pear seed to Oz, and it had become established, presumably you'd now be saying it did 'belong there'? It wouldn't have arrived there as a result of human activity. OK, you can say that it's irrelevant which species brought it there - whether it came on a duck's foot or in a human's hand baggage, for example, but what this discussion is leading me to believe is that there is a quantitative difference between us and other species - we do things more purposefully and on a larger scale, and therefore have a larger effect. Had Opuntia arrived in Oz as chance seeds in pre-human times, they would have established more slowly, other things would have evolved around them. They would not have become the problem that they did. Had Opuntia arrived in Oz as chance seeds in prehuman times, and proliferated exponentially, you are right to say they would not have become a problem, because there would not have been anyone on hand to perceive their presence and their effect on that ecosystem as problems. |
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