Geos 220
Writing Assignment 1
Reintroduction of the Wolf in the Southwest
"If the lobo has any useful qualities or habits, I have not yet learned of them. If it destroys any noxious animal, reptile or insect in appreciable quantity, I have no account of it. It seems to be a specialist in carnage and to have brought professional skill to the slaughter of cattle. Possibly it has uses—but it will require a skilled man with a very high powered magnifying glass to ascertain them." O.W. Williams, 1908, Historical Review of Animal Life in Pecos County. Evolutionary Scale of Extinction
Many people have argued that the Mexican wolf should be allowed to go extinct, based on the following line of reasoning:
- Death (extinction) is as much a part of life on Earth as living. Something like 90% of species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
- Extinction is so certain that Earth has experienced "momentary" events of mass extinction, where great percentages of existing species went under in a relatively short time period.
- After great extinction events, life on Earth has typically flourished with new species and new environmental adaptations.
- Therefore, not only is extinction inevitable, but it can even be considered a positive thing in the long run.
- Consequently, no big deal killing off the Mexican wolf, or losing squirrels, birds, snail darters, microscopic plants, sand flies, etc.
Indeed, this argument is attractive; click here to see it applied to the red squirrels of Mt. Graham. If you decide to try it in your essay, please do at least these two things:
- Find and cite sources to document the above statements. Don't just make them without backing them up, and this web site is not a citable source.
- Contend with the counter argument made by Stephen J. Gould, who was a champion of explaining evolutionary theory to the masses. His answer to the argument above is in this essay: The Golden Rule: A Proper Scale for Our Environmental Crisis. Gould's writing can be viewed as occasionally obtuse, but if you stick with these mere 10 pages, you'll probably look at the argument above in a whole new light.
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Revised -- September, 2006
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