Article Title: Which Species Will Live?
Author: Michelle Nijhuis
After reading this article, I think that not all species are worth saving. We would be wasting time and money trying to preserve other species who have no impact on other organisms, when we can be trying to protect species whose very own survival affects other organisms. It's not that all species are not equal and not worth saving, it's necessary to save those who are important to humans, organisms, and the environment.
Author: Michelle Nijhuis
- Conservation groups can no longer afford to try to protect as many animals and plants they have in the past, so they have to determine which species to save and which to leave to die.
- Each species is judged for its importance to its ecosystem, its economic and cultural value, and its potential to serve as a conservation emblem.
- Concept of conservation triage is based on medical triage, a decision-making system used by battlefield medics involving sorting patients for treatment in difficult situations where time, expertise or supplies are scarce.
- Chooses who to save and who will be left to die.
- Decisions are agonizing but are essential for the greater good.
- Journalist Charles C. Mann and economist Mark L. Plummer created the Noah Principle: all species are fundamentally equal, and everything can and should be saved, regardless of its importance to humans.
- Umbrella species whose own survival ensures the survival of many others should be protected first.
- Function-first approach focuses on specific ecological roles rather than numbers of species.
- Evolution-first approach emphasizes the preservation of genetic diversity, which can help all the world's species survive and adapt in fast-changing environmental conditions.
- Species are valuable for many different reasons: Some play a vital role in the ecosystem, some have unique genes, some provide extensive services to humans.
- The Wildlife Conservation Society gave priority to threatened species that have larger body size and wider geographic range, reasoning that protection of these creatures would likely benefit many other plants and animals.
- Hotspots are places that are full of plants found nowhere else on the planet and that are also under environmental threats.
- As climate change, population expansion and other global pressures on biodiversity continue, more and more species require heroic measures for survival.
After reading this article, I think that not all species are worth saving. We would be wasting time and money trying to preserve other species who have no impact on other organisms, when we can be trying to protect species whose very own survival affects other organisms. It's not that all species are not equal and not worth saving, it's necessary to save those who are important to humans, organisms, and the environment.