Abstract
In this chapter I consider two different perspectives on what it means to acknowledge and embrace anthropogenic ecological change with respect to ecosystem management and species conservation. On one view, embracing anthropogenic change involves taking greater responsibility for and control of the ecological future. We ought to use our best science and technology to thoughtfully and intentionally manage, and where necessary design and modify, ecological systems and species. On another view, embracing ecological change involves reducing human influences and allowing systems and species space and opportunities to transition and reconfigure without intentionally designing them in accordance with how we think they need or ought to be. Anthropogenic change does not itself imply that there is a responsibility to take an interventionist and control-oriented approach to ecosystem management and species conservation. Whether and when people ought to do so will vary by case and context, not only in accordance with the relevant empirical information, but also in accordance with the operative values as stake.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cafaro P (2011) Beyond business as usual: alternative wedges to avoid catastrophic climate change and create sustainable societies. In: Arnold D (ed) The ethics of global climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 192–215
Cafaro P (2017) Valuing wild nature. In: Gardiner SM, Thompson A (eds) Oxford handbook of environmental ethics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 125–135
Camacho AE, Doremus H, McLachlan JS, Minteer BA (2010) Reassessing conservation goals in a changing climate. Issues Sci Technol 26(4)
Caney S (2010) Climate change, human rights, and moral thresholds. In: Gardiner SM, Caney S, Jamieson D, Shue H (eds) Climate ethics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 163–177
Climate Interactive (2017) Scoreboard science and data. Available via https://www.climateinteractive.org/tools/scoreboard/scoreboard-science-and-data/. Accessed 1 Aug 2018
Crist E (2013) On the poverty of our nomenclature. Enviro Humanit 3:129–147
Donlan CJ, Berger J, Bock CE, Bock JH, Burney DA, Estes JA et al (2006) Pleistocene rewilding: an optimistic agenda for twenty-first century conservation. Am Nat 168:660–681
FAO (2014) The state of the world fisheries and aquaculture 2014. Rome, Italy, FAO
FAOSTAT (2015) Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division. Available via http://faostat.fao.org. Accessed 20 Sept 2018
Galloway JN, Dentener F, Boyer EW, Asner GP, Cleveland C, Green P et al (2004) Nitrogen cycles: past, present, and future. Biogeochemistry 70(2):153–226
Harris JA, Hobbs RJ, Higgs E, Aronson J (2006) Ecological restoration and global climate change. Restor Ecol 14(2):170–176
Higgs E, Falk DA, Guerrini A, Hall M, Harris J, Hobbs RJ et al (2014) The changing role of history in restoration ecology. Front Ecol Environ 12(9):499–506
Hobbs RJ, Arico S, Aronson J, Baron JS, Bridgewater P, Cramer VA et al (2006) Novel ecosystems: theoretical and management aspects of the new ecological world order. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 15:1–7
Hobbs RJ, Higgs E, Harris JA (2009) Novel ecosystems: implications for conservation and restoration. Trends Ecol Evol 24(11):599–605
Hoegh-Guldberg O, Hughes L, McIntyre S, Lindenmayer DB, Parmesan C, Possingham HP et al (2008) Assisted colonization and rapid climate change. Science 321(5887):345–346
IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC. Available via https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf. Accessed 6 Apr 2018
Katz E (1992) The Big Lie: human restoration of nature. Res Philos Technol 12:231–241
Krausmann F, Erb K-H, Gingrich S, Haberl H, Bondeau A, Gaube V et al (2013) Global human appropriation of net primary production doubled in the 20th century. Proc Natl Acad Sci 110(25):10324–10329
Marris E (2011) Rambunctious garden: saving nature in a post-wild world. Bloomsbury, New York
McKibben B (2000) The end of nature. Random House, New York
Minteer BA, Collins JP (2010) Move it or lose it? The ecological ethics of relocating species under climate change. Ecol Appl 20:1801–1804
Moore KD (2013) Anthropocene is the wrong word. Earth Island J. Available via http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/anthropocene_is_the_wrong_word/. Accessed 10 Apr 2018
NOAA (2015) What is ocean acidification? Available via http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F. Accessed 7 July 2018
Pacala S, Socolow RH (2004) Stabilization wedges: solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies. Science 305:968–972
Sandler R (2010) The value of species and the ethical foundations of assisted colonization. Conserv Biol 24(2):424–431
Sandler R (2014) The ethics of climate change mitigation. In: Di Paola M, Pellegrino G (eds) Canned heat: ethics and politics of global climate change. Routledge, New Delhi, pp 61–79
Sandler R (2017) Deextinction and conservation genetics in the anthropocene. Recreating the wild: de-extinction, technology, and the ethics of conservation. Hasting Cent Rep Spec Rep 47(4):S43–S47
Sandler R (2018) Environmental ethics: theory in practice. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Syvitski JPM, Kettner A (2011) Sediment flux and the anthropocene. Philos Trans R Soc A: Math Phys Eng Sci 369(1938):957–975
Taylor PW (1986) Respect for nature: a theory of environmental ethics. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Tripati AK, Roberts CD, Eagle RA (2009) Coupling of CO2 and ice sheet stability over major climate transitions of the last 20 million years. Science 326(5958):1394–1397
UNEP-WCNC and IUCN (2016) Protected Planet Report 2016. Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC. Available via https://wdpa.s3.amazonaws.com/Protected_Planet_Reports/2445%20Global%20Protected%20Planet%202016_WEB.pdf. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
United States Climate Change Science Program (2008) Preliminary review of adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. Available via www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4–4/final-report. Accessed 10 Mar 2011
Vucetich JA, Nelson MP, Chelsea K, Batavia K (2015) The anthropocene: disturbing name, limited insight. In: Minteer BA, Pyne SJ (eds) After preservation: saving American nature in the age of humans. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 66–73
Wilkinson BH, McElroy BJ (2007) The impact of humans on continental erosion and sedimentation. Geol Soc Am Bull 119(1–2):140–156
World Wildlife Fund (2014) Living Planet Report 2014. Gland, Switzerland: WWF. Available via http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/. Accessed 10 Oct 2017
Wuerthner G, Crist E, Butler T (2014) Keeping the wild: against domestication of earth. Island Press, Washington
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sandler, R. (2020). Two Conceptions of Embracing Ecological Change in Ecosystem Management and Species Conservation: Accommodation and Intervention. In: Valera, L., Castilla, J. (eds) Global Changes. Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29443-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29443-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29442-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29443-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)