Re: CP Conservation

Michael.Chamberland (23274MJC@MSU.EDU)
Mon, 25 Nov 96 10:00 EST

> I agree that education is the key. Part of the job of the various
> conservation agencies to educate society as to the disposition of various
> species and habitats. Unfortunately, the problem lies deeper. Even people
> who do not care to know about the status of various species or habitat know
> the status of the species or habitat. The current age of information
> exchange has aided that greatly. Yet with this knowledge, socitey may still
> go in a direction that conflicts with the survival of another species or
> habitat. So is it ours, or maybe your, part to deceive society for some
> good that you, or I, perceive to be necessary? Is deception a valid means
> of obtaining something beneficial?

Government agencies already withhold information (Nixon tapes, Hanger 18 :-)
Businesses withhold information too (just ask Coln. Sanders for his recipe :-)
I am sure that in your business or profession, not all records and information
are freely available to the public.
I wouldn't get too worried about a cataclysm arising from withholding exact
locality data. Withholding or generalizing information is very different from
true deception--which is providing false information. Please try to imagine
how free access to precise locality date for rare plants under collection
pressure could be misused (out of bad intent or uninformed good intentions).

> Not to be insulting, just curious, what would be >vigilante conservation<?

I define vigilante conservation as conservation attempts (or acts billed
as conservation) executed by persons on their own, without liability, and
based on intuitive procedures rather than tested conservation methodology.

I am sorry if all the discussion about conservation has got people to feel
they want to get involved, but do not know an outlet for doing so. This is
why I am trying to encourage people to hook up with existing organizations
which deal with conservation.

> The use of or you/your in certain statements is not meant as a personal
> attack but as an example for those that may have some power that others do
> not.

Power is not equally distibuted among people on this planet anyway.
I would hope that those who gain power are educated in how to use
it. To freely dispense power might contradict that, no?

Michael Chamberland