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Where Science Stops, and Action Starts

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Wildlife Ecotoxicology

Part of the book series: Emerging Topics in Ecotoxicology ((ETEP,volume 3))

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Abstract

Economists have traditionally cast wildlife in the role of an “externality”, a neutral background that does not formally interact with the day-to-day business of human affairs. Yet by the time Apollo astronauts had returned with pictures of a lonely earth hanging in space, many of us concluded that there are no externalities. We inhabit a natural world that can be all too relevant to our everyday lives, however much we might try to ignore this fact. The species sharing this world can become susceptible to poisons of our making, toxic agents that might carry profound ­economic significance for us, but fatal consequences for a variety of plants and animals.

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Correspondence to Tim Lougheed .

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Lougheed, T. (2011). Where Science Stops, and Action Starts. In: Elliott, J., Bishop, C., Morrissey, C. (eds) Wildlife Ecotoxicology. Emerging Topics in Ecotoxicology, vol 3. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-89432-4_15

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