Survey priority

[Jim Croft]

Chuck Parker wrote in response to Robert Mesibov:

>And, I totally reject the notion that I am wasting my time or the world's
>resources, financial or taxonomic, by working on this project.

I find this spat mildly amusing, but not terribly productive...  people 'do
biodiversity' for all sorts of reasons, from the spiritual to the
scientific, from sense of the aesthetic to idle curiosity, the convenience
or the challenge, local concern or global vision, some are casual (or
ardent) stamp collectors, some are on a Blues Brothers style 'mission from
God'.

My motivation is a mixture of all of these: I do it only because it is
interesting.  Biodiversity itself is interesting and the technology to
document it is interesting; when it ceases to be interesting it will be
time to do something else.  Conservation is a byproduct - somebody else can
do that... wherever, whenever, for whatever reason and on whatever group
they like...

Our mission from God is to document and understand and care for life on the
planet...  Trouble is God did not provide enough resources to finish the
job...  also God forgot to mention which parts had to be done
first...  this divine oversight is actually a good thing...  I have already
picked out the exciting bits... some other mug can do the rest...

It is not my business to question the where, what and why of somebody
else's survey conservation effort - it all adds to the total
picture...  just give them the facts ma'am,  just the facts... maybe they
can use them, maybe they can't... I don't really care all that much... the
facts have already served their purpose, revealed an interesting story,
maybe answered a question or two...  they owe me nothing...

So, adjust the black hat and shades, and onto the next 12 bars...

jim