subspecies

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Well I tried to keep my nose out of this one but finally relented and
decided to throw my quick thoughts on the table.  If some professional
taxonomists do not like subspecies then that is just fine with me but I do
not care. Many people do find subspecies and subspecies names to be useful
for a variety of perfectly legitimate reasons.  The world simply does not
revolve around opinions and attempted decrees by people who are paid to do
taxonomy. From my perspective as a conservation biologist/resource
management person; I view taxonomy as nothing more than a tool that
biologists and naturalists use to get a handle on biodiversity on our
planet.  Any taxonomic decision by whatever criteria will result in a
particular name in accordance with the rules of nomenclature.  The name
rules (actually nothing more than conventions) very wisely stay completely
away from prescribing anything to do with taxonomic decisions.  To do
otherwise would be nothing more than a transparent attempt at intellectual
censorship and very few people would find that acceptable. Many people will
continue to hang new names on organisms and reinterpret information to
derive taxonomic decisions that differ from those of others. Fact of life,
get used to it :-) Also get used to the fact that "expert Joe or Susan said
so" just does not cut it as any kind of reason with other intelligent
people. The experts need to get used to marketing their ideas just like
everyone else. They are in no position to impose anything on the rest of
humanity and I suspect that I am not alone in rendering my own judgement on
the merits of a case rather than who presented the case or where they
published it. Pooh-poohing something because of who said something or where
they said it is anti-science as well as being non-science.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca


 
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