Emma Marris talks about a number of goals in the last chapter of her novel, Rambunctious Garden. In chapter 10, “A Menu of New Goals”, she lists seven aspirations for our ecological future. These include protecting the rights of other species, protecting charismatic megafauna, slowing the rate of extinctions, protecting genetic diversity, defining and defending biodiversity, maximizing ecosystem services, and protecting the spiritual and aesthetic experience of nature, respectively. They are feasible goals that are possible to achieve.
She talks about how “humans must reduce their current intensive impact on the Earth” that satisfies “frivolous desires of their consumer society” for the first goal (Marris 155). It is simply the right and moral thing for us to do. Humans owe a responsibility to the natural world. Nature should not be exploited. In fact, nature should have rights just as humans do. Just because we can think and communicate does not mean we have the right to destroy or alter nature.
In the second goal, Marris explains that protecting megafauna does not mean we neglect smaller species. Just because we favor “big mammals with big eyes”, species like lichen and parasites are often overlooked (156). We have to take all the species of an ecosystem into account. Doing so would also help the rate of extinctions, which she talks about for the next goal. All species are “equally valuable” (158). Sometimes, preserving a particular species may cause harm. An example would be populating amphibians in zoos. It takes time to breed populations. How long would it take before ecological niches change and replace these species?
In the fourth goal, protecting genetic diversity is spelled out. Humans do not know for sure the exact distinctions between different animals. For example, studies have shown that “some brown bears are more closely related to polar bears than they are to some other brown bears” (160). Our current concept of species is not accurate and should not be used to determine which groups of organisms should be protected. In the same category, the fifth goal is protecting biodiversity – a high value. Although it is a difficult conservation goal, it embraces the whole planet and everything natural about it.
“Bits of land and the species therein are valuable to the extent that they help out humanity” (162). For the sixth goal, Marris talks emphasizes how vital ecological resources and services are. Without these services, society would have to spend a fortune. Pollinators help with our harvests. If bees were to go extinct, it would be a huge headache to get flowers pollinated.
For the last goal, she talks about how individuals feel spiritually connected to nature. Humans are attracted to beauty such as the one nature has. These provide “joyful cohabitation” to our future and our planet (170). Therefore, there should be some level of human intervention in nature. Together, beauty of nature can be maximized with the concept of rambunctious gardens. These ecosystems do not harm others. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, these recreational ecosystems are beneficial to society.
Rambunctious gardening is also a way to manage all these goals. As Marris states, “we’ve forever altered the Earth, and so now we cannot abandon it to a random fate. It is our duty to manage it” (171).
