Short Response Essay 2
Z19
SRE2-b.docxQ1: Question #1 (250-300 words): Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Nature’s Ghosts address a variety of unexpected alliances, contradictions, unintended consequences, and ironic developments with respect to the story of 19th-century wildlife extinction. Discuss at least one of these unexpected correlations/contradictions/unintended consequences/ironies that stands out to you, and what you consider to be the most interesting or valuable lesson that it poses for us as students of the history of ecology and environmentalism.
Before I read Marrow’s stories, I knew that some of the extinct animals studied today once existed freely on earth. However, I could barely envision how the world seemed when some most historical species still lived. Now, with a compelling flow and plentiful source material, “Nature’s Ghost” denotes the ultimate history liked to conservation biology before the Endangered Species Act. I believe this book deserves a general audience. It would be an ideal book for a course in the history of Ecology and Environment. Barrow weaves together various disciplines and presents a solid overview of the account of environmental ethics, history of evolution and ecology, as well as the history of environmentalism. In other words, these chapters offer relevant insight into the more comprehensive political discussions and social movements determining the future of different species.
The author’s choice of stories throughout the chapters is excellent. Barrow outlines the history of the native North American and European naturalists. He retraces the account of naturalists who opposed that species having a stable and perfect would go extinct. He also retraces the past of the extinction approval at the humans’ hands and the legitimate mechanisms adopted to prevent it. While some might acknowledge this, Barrow’s emphasis on the major part of professional and amateur naturalists annotates on how America adopted conservation in the 19th century. This book features many stories, whose focus is mainly animals. In this case, the author researched these chapters thoroughly and added numerous references. Nonetheless, the stories remain very engaging and accessible to any professional or casual reader. Something clear is the many black-and-white pictures showing endangered and extinct species. These images, alongside lesser-known and famous naturalists of 1800s, made the flow of the four chapters quite engaging. To any professional in conservation biology, ecology, or even wildlife readers and management, “Nature’s Ghost” is among the best books to read. Thus, the book suits all levels of academic, professional, and general readers interested in natural history. To History of Ecology and Environment students, the scientific approach through which Barrow addresses his readers in these chapters recommends people to protect species from extinction or the dangers of human activities and economic growth.
For the 1st essay, it seems like you read some reviews of the book online and took information from them, rather than answering the question about unintended consequences and contradictions in the book, something that we talked about in the lectures.
Q2: Question #2 (250-300 words): Briefly discuss at least one aspect of Professor Michael Egan’s Feb. 7th presentation that interests you, and how it relates to one of the specific articles or chapters assigned so far, and/or to one or more of the major questions of the course listed on the first page of the syllabus.
The professor touches on the protection and conservation of endangered species to enhance well-being and safety because they are of great importance to human life and environment. Besides, he also discusses the essence of ecological conservation using environmental movements in the past, presently, and the future. The environment has historically been a prominent part of western politics since the 1960s. In the aftermath of the Second World War, environment conservation was expanded by the consumer society in Europe and North America. The environmental movement in western culture was based on the 20th-century capitalism and the demand for cleanliness and healthy ecology (Toomey, 2016). The industry progress in the 20th century created significant concern for the environment since it ought to be conserved to support human life.
Human culture and nature tend to influence each other in the context of environmental conservation. In the last two centuries, the perception of nature and climate by the naturalists and ecologists have changed significantly. For instance, around a century ago, environmental conservation was a non-issue because the industrialization was not prevalent and common. However, with the introduction of industrialization, the climate and environment have been affected, and as such, the naturalists and ecologists view environmental conservation as a critical (Noss, 1996). Besides, they also view the discovery of new organisms requires attention and support not only by the government but also from the public.
Political implications on the ecology tend to differ from apolitical factors that influence the environment. According to Toomey (2016), political ecology incorporates the interactions between politics, economics, and social as well as biological and technological environment. These differ from other scientific disciplines because political ecology focuses on the trends in the environment. However, the natural history of ecology is different from political and social ecologies because it emphasizes degradation, environmental conflicts, marginalization, control and conservation, social movements, and environmental identities.
Environmental decision-making relies on scientific research. Scientists play a role in researching the energy policy, fisheries science, environmental politics, and the trends in the climate and weather to make decisions regarding environmental politics and science. Scientists have all the insights regarding nature and the environment and therefore, they contribute to decision-making significantly.
References:
Noss, R. F. (1996). Ecosystems as conservation targets: Nature Ghosts pdf. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 11(8), 351.
Toomey, D. (2016). The Legacy of the Man Who Changed Our View of Nature. Yale Environment360. Retrieved from https://e360.yale.edu/features/legacy_of_the_man_who_change_our_view_of_nature_alexander_von_humboldt_andrea_wulf
The Prof feedback:
And once again for the 2nd essay, you have not addressed any of the guest speaker’s ideas. I videotaped the talk so that students could go back and watch it to make sure they understood his points, but you have not discussed any of them.
