Comment on the article: Handle with Care

BY EMMA MARRIS

https://orionmagazine.org/article/handle-with-care/?utm_source=Fresh+May+6%2C+2015&utm_campaign=FRESH+5%2F6%2F15&utm_medium=email

 

 

“We owe it to them to improve our scientific understanding, our gardening prowess, so that we can ensure their continued persistence into the future.” Emma Marris

 

Here I agree.  Humans have interfered so destructively in the natural efforts of Earth to self-regulate that we have no choice but to “manage”, even though we lack the wisdom to do so.

 

 

“An entire book was recently released to counter the growing popularity of these ideas, the sum of which has been termed “new environmentalism.” The promotional material for Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth declares that,” Emma Marris

 

Promotional material often emphasises controversial ideas and is obviously biased towards raising eyebrows in order to increase the probability of a sale.  The following “New Environmentalism” claims are examples of the extremism that the authors of the book (an anthology) object to.

A sample of some of the Claims of the “new Environmentalism” copied from Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth.

 

“To succeed, conservation must serve human aspirations, primarily regarding economic growth and development; Maintaining ‘ecosystem services,’ not preventing human-caused extinction, should be conservation’s primary goal; Conservationists should not critique capitalism but rather should partner with corporations to achieve better results; The Anthropocene has arrived and humans are now de facto planetary managers.”