Which Species Will Survive?
A.
- Ashy Storm-Petrel: tiny, dark grey seabird
- Forced to contend with invasive rats, mice and cats, aggressive seagulls, oil spills and sea-level rise, it faces an outsize fight for survival
- Only 10,000 remain
- Conservation triage is based on medical triage
- Medical triage: a decision making system used by battlefield medics since the Napoleonic Wars
- Noah Principle: all species are fundamentally equal and everything can and should be saved regardless of its importance to humans
- Conservationists that are pushing for explicit triage say they are bringing more systematic thinking and transparency to practices that have been carried out implicitly for a long time
- Several ways to make triage decisions:
- weighting species according to their role in the ecosystem
- "umbrella" should be protecting before those with a redundant role
- As an alternative, the Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) of Existence program argues for prioritizing species at the genomic level, an approach we might call “evolution first”
- Available data and expert opinions, the analysis identified a small group of “global priority” species that the organization can focus on
- Researchers say that triage approaches should select among ecosystems instead of species
- Agencies and organizations can identify what is being saved, what is being lost and what could be saved with a bigger budget, giving them a much stronger case for more funding
- Act of setting priorities more overtly could inspire societies to spend more money on conservation efforts
B. There are many species that are necessary for different ecosystems. To some people, certain species are not and valuable as others. Some species are on the brink of extinction and people are not paying attention to them. They aren't concerned with their population they just care about what economic gain they will get from it. People are greedy and care more about money than they do the environment. Experts and conservationists have talked about which species are more important that the others and which of them are worth saving and they came up with methods that can actually save these species. One of these methods that they came up with would be Conservation Triage is a decision making system that is similar to the medical triage. As for the Medical triage, a decision making system used by battlefield medics since the Napoleonic Wars. Some of the of the triage decisions that they make are weighting species according to their role in the ecosystem as well as "umbrella" should be protecting before those with a redundant role. The longer these species are starting to die out the more damage this will do to the environment. It will become harder and more expensive to save these species and limiting resources could lead to many important species in the ecosystem to become extinct.
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C. I believe it is very important to save these species and save them as fast as we can. I have learned from my APES class that a species going extinct can completely change the dynamic of an entire habitat. For example, in our coyote lab we conducted, after removing the coyotes from their habitat, the other animals that lived in there were affected very drastically. The population of the different animals that lived they changed because removing the top predator causes their preys population to rise. I believe we should completely be focused on this issue. I don't think its fair that we get to decide which animals are and aren't worth saving. All animals are equally important to their respective habitats and they have an important place in the area they live in. We need to stop worrying just about ourselves but start worrying about the ENTIRE ecosystem. We rely on them as much as they rely on us.
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