A Different Way To Protect The Ghost Orchid

[gnathaniel]

Wow, some of you all need to chill out and start playing nice! You know who you are...

Yes, Carlos ('epiphyte78') has put forward some contentious and not terribly well-thought-out ideas here. He also linked to a pretty fascinating paper about the role of hybridization in the evolution and population dynamics of Epidendrum. Other studies suggest this is common throughout Orchidaceae and likely a significant factor in their unusually high speciation and diversity. Not too majorly controversial, right?

I understand that the volitional human aspect of Carlos's 'modest proposal' is troubling to some, and I'd agree generally that unintended/unforeseen consequences typically abound when humans go a-meddling. But we always do meddle, and now have an ecological footprint so vast that we are quite actively shifting many natural equilibria whether we intend to or not.

Since 'education' has repeatedly been brought up in condescending ways but as far as I saw no one's talked about some literature that IMO is pretty relevant, here's your assigned reading:

The Trouble with Wilderness

And pretty much anything coming up near the top of the following searches:

Ecological Engineering--Google Scholar

Assisted Migration--Google Scholar


Apologies if I come across as rude or dismissive here in any way and if so please call me out on it, in a friendly way of course.