Transcript History of Conservation Biology

Conservation Biology
What is Conservation Biology?
-The scientific study of the scarcity and
diversity of organisms.
- The applied science of maintaining the
earth’s diversity.
Organizing principles/ethics of
Conservation Biology (from Soulé)
1. The diversity of species and ecosystems
should be preserved
2. The untimely (human-caused) extinction of
populations and species should be
prevented
3. Ecological complexity should be
maintained
4. Evolution should continue
5. Biological diversity has intrinsic value
Conservation Biology is a
Crisis Discipline
• We often must make
decisions and/or
recommendations
without the luxury of
perfect data and absolute
certainty about outcomes
Conservation – the act of
protecting from loss or depletion
Flavors of Conservation
• Conservationist – a person who advocates or practices
the sensible and careful use of natural resources –
resources maintained in healthy condition
• Preservationist – a person who advocates allowing
some ecosystems and creatures to exist without
significant human interference
• Environmentalist – a person who is concerned about
the impact of people on environmental quality
• Ecologist – a scientist who studies the relationships
between organisms and their surrounding environment
A (Very) Brief History of
Conservation
Live Abalone on California Coast
Red Abalone Shell
Shell midden on California Coast
Close up of Midden
Early Conservation Efforts
• 3000 YA – Ikhnaton
sets aside land for
game preserve
• Deuteronomy – do not
kill mother bird on
nest
• Asoka – 272-232 BCE
declared some animals
can’t be killed, forests
not burned
Robin Hood
1639 Rhode Island hunting
regulations
• “from the first of May till the first of
November; and if any shall shoot a
deere within that time he shall forfeit
five pounds …”
Dust Bowl Storm – early 1930’s
After a Dust Storm
NRCS – originally founded as Soil Erosion
Service in 1935, later renamed Soil
Conservation Service and finally NRCS
Endangered Species Act - 1973
Yellowstone National Park –
established 1872
Wilderness Act - 1964
Roman sewers and aqueducts
Rachel Carson – Silent Spring - 1962
First Earth Day - 1970
Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, Ohio
On fire 1952
Pollution 1969
Major US Environmental Policies
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1963 - Clean Air Act
1970 – Clean Air Act Extension
1970 - Environmental Protection Agency formed
1974 – Safe Drinking Water Act
1977 – Clean Water Act
1976 – Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Rio Earth Summit - 1992
Kyoto Protocol - 1997
Basic Conservation Ethics
• Utilitarian – When a species goes extinct or an
ecosystem disappears we lose something useful
• Aesthetic – Species, ecosystems are beautiful,
pleasing – worth preserving
• Moral – All species and ecosystems have a right to
exist and humans have no right to destroy them
• Ecological – Species, ecosystems must be
conserved because their loss leads to further losses
and repercussions we can’t predict
Utilitarian Ethic Pacific Yew Tree Bark is source of Taxol –
anti-cancer drug
Diversity –
Aesthetically
pleasing
Moral – It is ethically right to act
in some ways and ethically
wrong to act in other ways
Moral - Judeo-Christian ethics of relationship to nature
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:26
Revised Standard Version
Moral - Judeo-Christian ethics of relationship to nature
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:26
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden
of Eden to till it and keep it.” – Genesis 2:15
Revised Standard Version
St. Francis of Assisi
13th Century Painting
Ecological
Development of Conservation
Ethics in the U.S.
Adam and Eve expelled from the
Garden of Eden
The Romantics
William Wordsworth
It seems a day,
(I speak of one from many singled out)
One of those heavenly days which cannot die,
When forth I sallied from our cottage-door,
And with a wallet o'er my shoulder slung,
A nutting crook in hand, I turn'd my steps
Towards the distant woods, a Figure quaint,
Trick'd out in proud disguise of Beggar's weeds
Put on for the occasion, by advice
And exhortation of my frugal Dame.
Motley accoutrement ! of power to smile
At thorns, and brakes, and brambles, and, in truth,
More ragged than need was. Among the woods,
And o'er the pathless rocks, I forc'd my way
Until, at length, I came to one dear nook
Unvisited, where not a broken bough
Droop'd with its wither'd leaves, ungracious sign
Of devastation, but the hazels rose
Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung.
A virgin scene !
– from ‘Nutting’
The Lake District
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Knife Edge Trail - Katahdin
John Muir
The Romantic-Transcendental Preservation Ethic
John Muir’s House and Ranch
John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt
at Yosemite
George Perkins Marsh
Gifford Pinchot
The Resource Conservation Ethic
Possible Values of Nature
• Instrumental value – a thing is valuable
because it is useful to humans
• Intrinsic value – a thing is valuable in and
of itself – valuable because it exists
Aldo Leopold
the
EvolutionaryEcological
Land Ethic
Aldo
And
Dog
At the
Shack
The First Oakies at the Shack