[Taxacom] when is a common species critically endangered?

[Zack Murrell]

In general we tend to view Homo sapiens disturbance of habitat as 
something different from the impact of elephants, ants or beavers.  We 
view species that we purposely move (e.g. starlings in the USA) but not 
species moved by others, as adventives/invasives.   We view migrations 
along Homo sapiens' corridors of "disturbance" as being somehow 
different from post-glacial migrations.  On the other hand, some 
scientists are using "invasives" to gain a general understanding the 
genetic structure of species as they move across the landscape.

To answer Mark's question "how long will it take before humans and their 
artifacts are considered part of "nature"?", my knee jerk answer is 
"when pigs fly" but maybe the better answer is that this will occur when 
Homo sapiens stop putting their own species at the "top" of the 
evolutionary tree of life.

Zack

Zack Murrell
Associate Professor and Curator of the Herbarium
Director, SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC)
Department of Biology
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608

On 6/27/2012 6:13 PM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> It doesn't necessarily lead to "twisted logic". If you were to take a 
> "God's eye view" of the Earth, then you might have a hard time 
> retaining such concepts as ethics/morality,etc. One animal gets killed 
> by another ... big deal! One human gets killed by another ... BIG 
> DEAL! The fact that we are humans cannot be ignored ...
> Stephen
>
> *From:* Zack Murrell <murrellze at appstate.edu>
> *To:* taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> *Sent:* Thursday, 28 June 2012 9:46 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [Taxacom] when is a common species critically endangered?
>
> Mark,
>
> I don't think this is a naive question.  Our speciocentricism leads us to
> categorize things as crops, invasives, weeds, natives and non-natives. 
> Species have been moving across the planet since life began, yet we view
> Homo sapiens migrations, along with those co-migrating species, as 
> something
> different.  I suspect this leads to all sorts of twisted logic in how we
> view conservation, migrations and distributions of species.
>
> Zack
>
> Zack Murrell
> Associate Professor and Curator of the Herbarium
> Director, SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC)
> Department of Biology
> Appalachian State University
> Boone, NC 28608
>
> On 6/26/2012 10:29 PM, Mark Wilden wrote:
> > This is no doubt an incredibly naive question, but how long will it
> > take before humans and their artifacts are considered part of
> > "nature"?
> >
> > ///ark
> >
> > Mark Wilden
> > Web Applications Developer
> > California Academy of Sciences
> >
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