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How is the beauty of the insect or the way it cares about its eggs relevant to whether or not it should be eradicated? > Must we also evict the magnificently i
by _cs2017_ 5y ago
How is the beauty of the insect or the way it cares about its eggs relevant to whether or not it should be eradicated?
> Must we also evict the magnificently iridescent mosquitoes whose larvae prey on dangerous species, or the ones that pollinate flowers at night, or the single species known to risk its life to protect its eggs from harm?
- mc32 5y agoIt’s nice and poetic. These thoughts will leave any non modern human in peril in the savanna or most wildernesses because nature doesn’t care and can be utterly violent. I would call this attitude the privilege of modernity that disconnects people from immediate danger affording them these mental exercises that would in another time imperil them.
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago>...savanna or most wildernesses. Reading this while dual wielding mosquito bats like a Jedi while the mosquito repellent is nauseating me at my suburban house in India. My school books proudly claimed Alexander the Great died because of the Malaria he contracted during his campaign in India.
- mykowebhn 5y agoThe beauty of most species is entirely relevant to whether or not it should be eradicated. Conservation biologists and botanists recognize that beauty and, more generally, charisma are what gets the public's attention when the former seek help for their conservation efforts. As such, you'll often see the most charismatic species--pandas, whales, and seals, for example--on conservation brochures. People only ever open their wallets to support conservation efforts if they see pictures of charismatic species. This is not just a marketing ploy. The public really only cares when charismatic species are threatened with extinction. A midwestern grass or an ugly insect? Not so much. So the beauty of the insect or the way it cares about its eggs is entirely relevant in the public opinion, which in turn determines public policy, to whether or not it should be eradicated.
- specialist 5y agoNot all decisions are strictly utilitarian, rational, logical.
- higherup 5y agoThe author seem to not cite "beauty", but them being not harmful to human beings as a reason not to eradicate them.