The passenger pigeon, the great auk, the Tasmanian tiger-the memory
of these vanished species haunts the fight against extinction.
Seeking to save other creatures from their fate in an age of
accelerating biodiversity loss, wildlife advocates have become
captivated by a narrative of heroic conservation efforts. A range
of technological and policy strategies, from the traditional, such
as regulations and refuges, to the novel-the scientific wizardry of
genetic engineering and synthetic biology-seemingly promise
solutions to the extinction crisis. In The Fall of the Wild, Ben A.
Minteer calls for reflection on the ethical dilemmas of species
loss and recovery in an increasingly human-driven world. He asks an
unsettling but necessary question: Might our well-meaning efforts
to save and restore wildlife pose a threat to the ideal of
preserving a world that isn't completely under the human thumb?
Minteer probes the tension between our impulse to do whatever it
takes and the risk of pursuing strategies that undermine our
broader commitment to the preservation of wildness. From collecting
wildlife specimens for museums and the wilderness aspirations of
zoos to visions of "assisted colonization" of new habitats and
high-tech attempts to revive long-extinct species, he explores the
scientific and ethical concerns vexing conservation today. The Fall
of the Wild is a nuanced treatment of the deeper moral issues
underpinning the quest to save species on the brink of extinction
and an accessible intervention in debates over the principles and
practice of nature conservation.
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My review
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 | Review
by: Tanya K.
This book focuses on the ethics, pros and cons, of a variety of conservation methods. Ben Minteer makes use of several popular examples to make his point. Examples and topics that make an appearance in this book include the Passenger Pigeon, Great Auk, Thylacine, Elephants, American Bison, Condors, specimen collecting of marginal species, captive breeding programmes, the future appearance of zoos (think Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs), species translocation, assisted colonization of endeangered species outside their usual range, resurrection science, and the limits of technological "fixes" to problems.
What the author has tried to promote in this book is an alternative environmental ethic, what he calls "pragmatic preservationism". This concept captures two core ideas regarding conservation" (1) the growing need to intervene more aggressively to save species in a rapidly changing environment; and (2) an acknowledgement of our resonsibility to preseve a convincing sense of the wild and a respect for nature as we implement (or not) these interventions.
While this isn't a particularly original or detailed examination of the topic, it does make for an interesting, well-written, thought-provoking, enjoyable and short introduction to conservation ethics, with no irrelevant biographical side tangents.
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