In the last chapter of Rambunctious Gardens, Emma Marris discusses seven different ecological goals. These seven goals are: protecting the rights of other species, protecting megafauna, slowing the rate of extinctions, protecting genetic diversity, defending biodiversity, maximizing ecosystem services and protecting the beauty of nature. The way to accomplish these goals is through much collaboration between the government and its people, but would could prove most difficult is providing the necessary funds to support these initiatives.
The first goal was protecting the rights of other species. Humans unfortunately, don’t view all species as equal and therefore spend more time and money concentrating on the species they value most. We love the exotic species and the beautiful plant life, while somewhat ignoring the species that have intrinsic values such as shrubs or worms. The second goal was protecting megafauna. One criticism of protecting the megafauna is that it may lead to the extinction of smaller mammals and plants. With the overpopulation of megafuana, this will cause the equilibriums of ecosystem to change, which could have dire consequences.
The third goal was slowing the rate of extinctions. The main criticism for this goal was that it is financially as well as time consuming to save every single species from the risk of extinction. Asking humans for their opinions about which species should be saved from extinction is really biased and yet again such species as shrubs and worms who aren’t as appealing as exotic tropical species will not be chosen to be saved. It is very time consuming because species must be brought into captivity while we are repairing their habitats simultaneously. Also, there is no guarantee that when we drop the captive species back into their old habitats that they will be able to adapt to it. Goal four was protecting genetic diversity which could be achieved through the interbreeding of different species which helps diversity their genetics making it increasingly difficult for them to get extinct.
Goal five was defending biodiversity. Yet again, this goal takes a lot of time and money to be successful. That problem combined with the peoples bias over which species to save and which ones to let go, make this goal not feasible. Goal six advocates for maximizing ecosystem services. Some of the most diverse ecosystems don’t provide services that humans want which may provide a problem for them if they are only looking at ecosystems that are most cost benefit. Humans will be looking at ecosystems that bring them the most profit, which may lead to the destruction of those ecosystems that are vastly diverse. Finally, goal seven advocated for the beauty of nature. This goal is definitely the most important because beauty is something that cannot be measured by money but only through the happiness it conveys. Marris’s goal that humans must manage nature, I believe is the right coarse of action to take for only when we can literally play god when it comes to nature, will be take our roles more seriously and produce results.
