4 ms·

It's good to see conservationists admit that their task is mostly killing. Too often people confuse conserving a species with being nice to animals. They're dia

by Sorgam 12y ago

It's good to see conservationists admit that their task is mostly killing. Too often people confuse conserving a species with being nice to animals. They're diametrically opposite ambitions. Conservationists sometimes try to tap into our "don't kill cute animals" feeling to support their cause, but have to do a 180 when it doesn't suit. I once proposed to someone that the best way to prevent whales being killed was to kill them all. It's surely true, they can't be hunted if they're never even born. But his response was "you have no morals". Actually conservationism is an activity without morals.

dashboardfront 12y ago
> I once proposed to someone that the best way to prevent whales being killed was to kill them all. It's surely true, they can't be hunted if they're never even born. But his response was "you have no morals". Actually conservationism is an activity without morals. Okay... But I'm pretty sure a conservationists goal is not to make species go extinct. There is a long run goal which is the survival of as many species and habitats as possible. Being nice animals is not diametrically opposed with being a conversationist, nor would a conversationist actually argue for killing all whales unless it had greater benefits for ocean ecosystems as a whole. You're ignoring the long-term consequences and only focusing on the actions themselves in calculating moral utility.
- XorNot 12y ago
  There's also the prickly moral issue that whales are not clearly non-sentient, on a similar level of consciousness to humans.
mkal_tsr 12y ago
Guy Williams has your back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AG4odHCokw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AG4odHCokw
mcv 12y ago
Wiping out the species you're trying to save is obviously ludicrous. The point of this article is that rats (which are dead common in practically all corners of the world) pose an enormous threat to lots of unique species and ecosystems, and controlling rats is necessary if you want to preserve those unique species and ecosystems. Spreaking large amounts of poison to do that, certainly makes me quite uncomfortable. But I'm no conservationist, so I can't really judge whether that's ultimately a good or bad idea.

by Sorgam 12y ago

dashboardfront 12y ago

> I once proposed to someone that the best way to prevent whales being killed was to kill them all. It's surely true, they can't be hunted if they're never even born. But his response was "you have no morals". Actually conservationism is an activity without morals. Okay... But I'm pretty sure a conservationists goal is not to make species go extinct. There is a long run goal which is the survival of as many species and habitats as possible. Being nice animals is not diametrically opposed with being a conversationist, nor would a conversationist actually argue for killing all whales unless it had greater benefits for ocean ecosystems as a whole. You're ignoring the long-term consequences and only focusing on the actions themselves in calculating moral utility.

XorNot 12y ago
There's also the prickly moral issue that whales are not clearly non-sentient, on a similar level of consciousness to humans.

mkal_tsr 12y ago

Guy Williams has your back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AG4odHCokw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AG4odHCokw

mcv 12y ago

Wiping out the species you're trying to save is obviously ludicrous. The point of this article is that rats (which are dead common in practically all corners of the world) pose an enormous threat to lots of unique species and ecosystems, and controlling rats is necessary if you want to preserve those unique species and ecosystems. Spreaking large amounts of poison to do that, certainly makes me quite uncomfortable. But I'm no conservationist, so I can't really judge whether that's ultimately a good or bad idea.