Gar Lipow on eco-optimism

[Ian Murray]

> There's nothing natural about species extinctions nowadays. The
> rainforests, which contain probably the most biodiversity per square
meter
> on the planet, are being trashed because of market forces run amok,
which
> force countries like Brazil into slash-and-burn extractivism to make
the
> payments on their unpayable foreign debt.
======
The worst rainforest destruction of the last 50 years has been the
Pacific Northwest of US/Canada followed by forests in Asia.

 Preserving species isn't an
> absolute, of course; noone would want to preserve the smallpox
virus, a
> horrid life-form. But we're talking about the unnecessary
destruction of
> countless natural histories, of life-forms we don't know very much
about,
> who haven't done us any harm, and are the contingent, irreplaceable
> product of millions of years of evolution. By preserving them, we're
doing
> more than just preserving ourselves; we're also allowing those
life-forms
> to have a future, to evolve into other, perhaps more interesting
species.
>
> -- Dennis
==========

That eat us for breakfast.

Ian