Ecosystem Services: Is a Planet Servicing One Species Likely to Function?

Abstract

Human wellbeing is more likely to be secured if we work in the service of nature rather than attempt to force nature to work in the service of humanity. The success of ecology and evolution is attributable to subscription to the philosophical principles of naturalism and pragmatism, neither of which admit romantic, spiritual, moral, or other humanist constructs. Currently, however, environmental science is investing heavily in the idea of ecosystem services which mixes naturalism and pragmatism with humanism. It imagines that we can select those ecological and evolutionary processes that fit humanist ideals while eliminating all others. I suggest that this immiscible blend of philosophies is untenable. Natural science has revealed a biosphere that is governed by nothing that maps well onto humanist ideals. The biosphere is not designed to serve a single species and will collapse if we force it to do so. The way forward is to think less about ecosystems servicing or disserving humanity, and to think more about humanity living in the service of nature as all species do. This idea should not be confused with pantheism, enslavement to dark Malthusian fears, or cold-hearted adherence to evolutionary principles like survival of the fittest – such primitive thinking is as much a formula for planetary demise as blind faith in ecosystem services. Rather, I propose that living in the service of nature yields a biosphere in which all of life prospers and, in so doing, achieves the environmental sustainability that is a necessary precursor to attaining humanist ideals.