ISSN: 2578-4994
Authors: Hyde BVE*
To be objective is to be attentive to the relevant facts. However, this is exceptionally challenging in ecology – more so than in social sciences – because there are so many distal factors and confounding variables in ecosystems that do not compare in quantity to those in social ones. Thus, when we intervene in nature, we can seldom be sure that our intervention will have the intended effect and, moreover, that it will have no other unintended ones. This essay aims to show that we are either intervening into nature when we cannot be objective, or when we can but objectivity is essentially useless. This finding supports arguments against anthropic intervention into ecosystems.
Keywords: Objectivity; Ecology; Intervention; Arrogance; Environmental Engineering
