Rambunctious Garden Chap 10

In chapter 10 of Emma Marris’ “Rambunctious Garden,” the author summarizes all of the goals that conservationists hope to achieve in the near future. Different conservationists value nature differently, therefore, they all want to achieve different goals. Some want to protect the rights of other species, namely megafauna, slow extinction rates, utilize ecosystem services, and most importantly protect nature as a whole. The first goal Marris points out, protecting the rights of species, is somewhat biased. It is rather hard to give rights to certain species such as plants, mountains, etc; yet giving rights to other species is definitely something that I am unopposed too. I realize that this is a touchy topic, yet I believe that animals deserve rights as well. Just because their intelligence is arguably lower than man, does not give any reason to lessen their “rights.” Maximizing our ecosystem services is of utmost importance as we have a finite amount of resources provided to us by our planet, and one day, it just might run out. Moreover, we must find ways to protect our resources, something that most conservationists would agree upon. While protecting megafauna has its proverbial pro’s and con’s, it is closely related to protecting biodiversity which is obviously a positive plan. Slowing extinction rates is really common sense. The extinction of various species on Earth is obviously detrimental to our ecosystem in more ways than one. Perhaps most notably the food chain will be inevitably disrupted permanently. I thought this was a good way to end the book as Marris took various points from a number of the chapters throughout the book, and brought them together to form a cohesive argument and solution. However, given the size and spectrum of certain conservationist efforts proposed by Marris, there is definitely room for criticism and controversy. Many ethical arguments arise when debating conservationism; who has rights to what? Can we sacrifice something in order to benefit something else? Marris points out that advocating for an individual species is a touchy topic as it often becomes a political and somewhat emotional topic. In terms of protecting biodiversity, there are numerous laws that enforce vague policies that are hard to get around.
I genuinely enjoyed reading Marris’ book. As a typical teenage college student, I did not know much about conservationist efforts before reading her book. While there are certain issues where our ideologies differ, it’s safe to say that after reading this book, my views toward conservationism have changed and bear some similarities to Marris’. The last line of chapter 10 basically sums up how my own views toward conservationism have changed, “In different places, in different chunks, we can manage nature for different ends–for historical restoration, for species preservation, for self-willed wilderness, for ecosystem services, for food and fiber and fish and flame trees and frogs. We’ve forever altered the Earth, and so now we cannot abandon it to a random fate” (171)