Vulnerability and foolishness

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Patrick observed: "It is possible to assess vulnerability to extinction."
Yes, I agree, but only as vulnerability in relation to a particular event or
suite of events. Vulnerability as an absolute concept without context does
not have any meaning to me. But in reality, at least as I see it, what is
being decided on in the listing process is the likelihood (probability) that
something will go extinct without the safeguards provided through the
legislation which enables the listing. 
Patrick also observed:"There certainly is politics, legalism and all manner
of other foolishness in the
listing process, but there is also some science". Here I must protest since
this puts forth the notion (as I read it) that anything which is not science
is foolishness and also implies (as I read it) that there is no foolishness
in science. Politics, legalism and the right to express views that other
people do not like are the cornerstones of a democratic society. I see
nothing foolish about that. I see great wisdom in having a decision making
process that is open, transparent and replete with lots of checks and
balances. I am very pleased that sound information (=science) is used to
support the listing process. But lets not kid ourselves, ain't no perfect
people (myself included) and sometimes we are deceived (inadvertently)by
faulty information (=foolish science). EG. Boloria acrocnema was perceived
to be in trouble on its mountain tops in the wilderness because some people
did a survey after its flight period during an abnormally early flight
season and one other person with influence was aghast that one person had
collected a long series of the butterfly. I guess however that we can
tolerate some poor listing decisions because most of them will be proven to
be sound decisions at the end of the day. I quite like the USA Endangered
Species Act. But I reserve the right to carp about its definition of a
species and I reserve the right to disagree with some of the decisions that
are made pursuant to said act.
Patrick, my apologies if I read anything into your words that were not
intended to be there. As Rev. Ron has pointed out a number of times; hasty
email notes are a poor subsitute for real communication between people. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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