Conservation Arguments Research Articles

Arguments for biodiversity conservation in Natura 2000 sites: An analysis based on LIFE projects

Achieving acceptance among local stakeholders is crucial for biodiversity conservation, as their often diverging interests can hamper the success of conservation projects. While research exists on the different narratives and arguments used in the international policy debates, there is not much evidence on how effective alternative arguments are in communicating the value of biodiversity to local stakeholders. This paper used a multiple case study design for sites of the European Union’s Natura 2000 network to investigate which arguments have been successfully used to persuade local stakeholders of restoration projects, funded under the EU’s LIFE program. Particular focus is given to the role of ecosystem services as arguments for nature conservation and how these relate to other instrumental and non-instrumental arguments. Instrumental arguments appeared particularly effective for commercial users, where economic interests stood against the conservation activities. But also stakeholders without commercial interest tended to be more receptive to arguments that implied a benefit for themselves or their communities, such as recreation or a cultural value. Regarding ecosystem services this study found that they should be understood as an addition to the category of instrumental arguments. Where pure economic factors were not sufficient to create a business case for conservation, ecosystem services were frequently applied to make the case for conservation stronger. Finding consensus among the different stakeholders is a key factor in achieving any conservation at all. The argument strategy should therefore always consist of a mix of instrumental and non-instrumental arguments, as only focusing on instrumental arguments might repel those individuals who seek a strong ethical motivation.

Topology of desiccation crack patterns in clay and invariance of crack interface area with thickness.

We study the crack patterns developed on desiccating films of suspensions of three different clays-bentonite, halloysite nanoclay and laponite on a glass substrate. Varying the thickness of the layer, h gives the following new and interesting results: i) We can identify a critical thickness h c for bentonite and halloysite, above which isolated cracks join each other to form a fully connected network. ii) A topological analysis involving the Euler number is shown to be useful for characterising the patterns. iii) We find, further, that the total vertical surface area of the clay A v, which has opened up due to cracking, and the total area of the glass substrate A s, exposed by the hierarchical sequence of cracks are constant, independent of the layer thickness for a certain range of h. These results are shown to be consistent with a simple energy conservation argument, neglecting dissipative losses. Finally we show that if the crack pattern is viewed at successively finer resolution, the total cumulative area of cracks visible at a certain resolution scales with the layer thickness.

Notas Sobre Florestas no Brasil da Primeira República: Silvicultura, Preservação da Natureza e Agricultura

Este artigo se propõe a discutir os argumentos em prol da silvicultura e da preservação das florestas brasileiras - culminando na organização do Serviço Florestal durante a Primeira República. O presente artigo também visa analisar as preocupações com as mudanças climáticas. A análise que se segue desdobra-se no pensamento de acadêmicos, literatos, agricultores e estadistas baseados em uma documentação que envolve o Ministério da Agricultura, crônicas, revistas científicas e periódicos agrícolas. Nessa análise busca-se perceber como tais atores pensavam a proteção à natureza. Enfim, privilegia-se uma perspectiva teórica fundada na História Ambiental, sintonizando o trabalho com questões econômicas, políticas e culturais.Palavras chave: Patrimônio Natural; Agricultura; Silvicultura; Mudanças Climáticas.

Tracking analysis of augmented complex least mean square algorithm

SummaryThe augmented complex least mean‐square (ACLMS) algorithm is a suitable algorithm for the processing of both second‐order circular (proper) and noncircular (improper) signals. In this paper, we provide tracking analysis of the ACLMS algorithm in the non‐stationary environments. Using the established energy conservation argument, we derive a variance relation that contains moments that represent the effects of non‐stationary environment. We evaluate these moments and derive closed‐form expressions for the excess mean‐square error (EMSE) and mean‐square error (MSE). The derived expressions, supported by simulations, reveal that unlike the stationary case, the steady‐state EMSE, and MSE curves are not monotonically increasing functions of the step‐size parameter. We also use this observation to optimize the step‐size learning parameter. Simulation results illustrate the theoretical findings and match well with theory. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation.

There is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops. Dominant crop pollinators persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments.

Examining the Linearity of Transition State Scaling Relations

The dissociation of strong bonds in molecules shows large variations in the geometric structure of the transition state depending on the reactivity of the surface. It is therefore remarkable that the transition state energy can be accurately described through linear relations such as the Bronsted-Evans–Polanyi relations. Linear scaling relations for adsorbates with fixed structure can be understood in terms of bond order conservation but such arguments should not apply to transition states where the geometric structure varies. We have investigated how to relate the concepts from linear adsorption energy scaling to transition state energies. We expect that strong deviations from linearity only occur for very early or very late transition states. According to the Sabatier principle, the rate-limiting step of the best catalysts is not expected to be in either of these regions. Our results therefore support the use of linear transition state scaling relations for the optimization of catalysts.

Concept of Social Justice

The concept of social justice is a revolutionary concept which provides meaning and significance to life and makes the rule of law dynamic. When Indian society seeks to meet the challenge of socio-economic inequality by its legislation and with the assistance of the rule of law, it seeks to achieve economic justice without any violent conflict. The ideal of a welfare state postulates unceasing pursuit of the doctrine of social justice. That is the significance and importance of the concept of social justice in the Indian context of today. Justice is the virtue we practice by giving people what is due them. Therefore, there is a problem of assignability when we consider an unjust social order: What is due from an individual beneficiary of that order to an individual victim? That question is answered by the concept of social justice: What all of us individually owe to each individual victim of the institutions now in place is our best efforts to reform those institutions. The first half of this paper analyzes the traditional arguments for and the conservative arguments against social justice as the answer to this problem of assignability. Within that framework, it highlights the need for combating and remedying injustices in society even though different, unknown, or more difficult problems may arise from doing so. This paper also describes Hayek’s theory of social justice. The trouble with “social justice” begins with the very meaning of the term. Hayek points out that whole books and treatises have been written about social justice without ever offering a definition of it. It is allowed to float in the air as if everyone will recognize an instance of it when it appears. This vagueness seems indispensable. The concept of social justice has become a common part of the political lexicon in recent years, with New Labour identifying it as a key goal of its social strategy.

The Forgotten Decade: The Legislative Conservation of Game, Fish and Timber in 1860s Victoria

Between 1851 to 1860, an unprecedented ‘gold rush’ wrought a profound transformation upon the fledgling state of Victoria. By 1860, Victoria’s population had increased sevenfold and the colony was attracting ‘worldwide fame’ as one of Britain’s wealthiest settlements. However, this colonial prosperity came at a high environmental cost. Whether by land clearing for agriculture or mining, industrial and urban pollution, or the over exploitation of game, fish and timber - colonial progress often meant, as one colonist observed, that ‘every feature of nature [was] annihilated’. Almost all historians have argued that the environmental degradation of Victoria was an inevitable consequence of the widespread antipathy (or antagonism) of Victorians to what they perceived as a foreign and ugly environment. Whilst some colonists called for restraint, ‘the colonial project - to master, develop, and prosper - overwhelmed the faint cry of such sentiments’. This paper will contend that this dominant historical narrative is specious and inconsistent with surviving primary source material. Not only was environmental concern prevalent in Victorian society, popular concern persuaded Parliament to enact considerable environmental legislation throughout the 1860s. Historians have either blithely dismissed or simply ignored the history of this legislation. This is perplexing given that the development of law provides a critical insight into Victorian society’s commitment to - and reasons for - addressing environmental concerns. Thus, this paper examines the three most significant environmental regimes enacted throughout the 1860s: namely, the game, fish and timber statutes. It will be shown that these regimes were primarily justified by utilitarian conservation arguments and, additionally, that aesthetic and moral considerations were vital. The existence and influence of a ‘proto-preservationist philosophy’, which underpinned the enactment of these statutes, disproves the orthodox historical narrative that colonial society was generally apathetic to environmental degradation and that colonists who voiced concerns were ‘insignificant’.Supervisor: Prof Tim Bonyhady

“Out of Chaos Breathes Creation”: Human Agency, Mental Illness, and Conservative Arguments Locating Responsibility for the Tucson Massacre

Abstract In this essay, we examine public responses to Jared Lee Loughner’s attempted assassination of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, focusing in particular on the rhetorical strategies employed by political conservatives. We argue that the most prominent conservative reactions either undermined the potential for reasoned debate and a cohesive narrative regarding the causes of the attack or, by emphasizing Loughner’s agency as an individual, deranged actor, painted the event in a way that failed to provide transformative redemption, foreclosed even the possibility of a rhetorically satisfying sense of justice, and preempted what could otherwise have been a rich, deliberative deployment of civility. We utilize Kenneth Burke’s dramatism in speculating about possible alternative interpretations of the situation, hopeful that such an analysis might offer both the public and the government more effective rhetorical resources for dealing with and even preventing such increasingly common tragedies. In particular, we advocate the use of a hybrid, tragicomic frame—a sort of Burkean Serenity Prayer in which we accept the things we cannot change while still finding the inspiration, strength, and wisdom to respond productively—alongside a multifaceted set of pentadic ratios to address the complex demands created by mental illness.

Why Landscape Beauty Matters

This philosophical paper explores the aesthetic argument for landscape conservation. The main claim is that the experience of beautiful landscapes is an essential part of the good human life. Beautiful landscapes make us feel at home in the world. Their great and irreplaceable value lies therein. To establish this claim, the concepts of landscape and “Stimmung” are clarified. It is shown how “Stimmung” (in the sense of mood) is infused into landscape (as atmosphere) and how we respond to it aesthetically. We respond by resonating or feeling at home. The paper ends by indicating how art can help us to better appreciate landscape beauty. This is done by way of an example from contemporary nature poetry, Michael Donhauser’s Variationen in Prosa, which begins with “Und was da war, es nahm uns an” (“And what was there accepted us”).

Reconciling utilitarian and non-utilitarian approaches to biodiversity conservation

ESEP Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics Contact the journal RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections ESEP 14:27-32 (2014) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00149 AS I SEE IT Reconciling utilitarian and non-utilitarian approaches to biodiversity conservation Michel Loreau* Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Station d’Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS, 09200 Moulis, France *Corresponding author: michel.loreau@ecoex-moulis.cnrs.fr ABSTRACT: Two broad types of approaches have been used in biodiversity conservation: (1) non-utilitarian approaches, which put the emphasis on the aesthetic, emotional, spiritual, and ethical values of nature, and (2) utilitarian approaches, which put the emphasis on species and ecosystems as resources or service suppliers for humans. Here, I argue that the long-standing divide between utilitarian and non-utilitarian perspectives is a reflection of the separation between humankind and nature that lies at the root of the global ecological crisis. Neither perspective challenges this separation fundamentally; therefore; neither alone offers a solid foundation for biodiversity conservation. Resolving the current ecological crisis requires, first and foremost, reconciling humans with their own nature, which in turn requires refocusing both human development and nature conservation on fundamental human needs. Contrary to a widely held idea, fundamental human needs do not involve a purely utilitarian or anthropocentric worldview. Quite the opposite, they provide powerful non-utilitarian arguments for nature conservation, and they are fully compatible with the recognition or attribution of intrinsic values in the human and non-human world. Human nature is neither fundamentally selfish and utilitarian, nor fundamentally altruistic and non-utilitarian; humans simply have a set of fundamental needs that require satisfaction, and these needs include respecting and loving the world around them. KEY WORDS: Biodiversity conservation · Environmental ethics · Ecological economics · Ecosystem services · Intrinsic value · Instrumental value · Human nature · Fundamental human needs Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Loreau M (2014) Reconciling utilitarian and non-utilitarian approaches to biodiversity conservation. Ethics Sci Environ Polit 14:27-32. https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00149 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESEP Vol. 14, No. 1. Online publication date: October 27, 2014 Print ISSN: 1863-5415; Online ISSN: 1611-8014 Copyright © 2014 Inter-Research.

What can we hold against populism?

Populist movements have become key players in European politics. These movements are readily criticized by journalists or political rivals, yet none of the common objections to populism seems to arrest their success. This article turns to normative political theory to cultivate sensitivity to problems arising from some existing arguments against populism, and to explore possible alternatives. It offers a critical reading of prototypical liberal and conservative arguments against populism, and proposes that the principles of solidarity and procedure provide good grounds for a sustainable critique of populism.

Feisal G. Mohamed and Mary Nyquist Milton andQuestions of History: Essays by Canadians Past and PresentMilton and Questions of History: Essays by Canadians Past and Present. Edited by Feisal G. Mohamed and Mary Nyquist. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Pp. viii+426.

<i>Feisal G. Mohamed</i> and <i>Mary Nyquist</i> Milton andQuestions of History: Essays by Canadians Past and Present<i>Milton and Questions of History: Essays by Canadians Past and Present</i>. Edited by Feisal G. Mohamed and Mary Nyquist. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Pp. viii+426.

The conservative minimum: historical and transcendent subject

In this article, I propose a conservative minimum that characterizes conservative thought and differentiates it from non-conservative discourses on society and politics. According to this analysis, conservative arguments justify their agenda of change with reference to a historical and transcendent subject that is commonly (but not always) labelled ‘society’. Classical forms of other main ideologies lack such a conception of collectively created subject that is seen as both historical and transcendent. This subject, and its use as the final source of justification of policy proposals, is therefore a characteristic of conservative thought. All variations of conservatism, including those that seek to preserve the establishment and those that advocate reforms, aim to conserve this historical and transcendent entity. Defining this subject offers a heuristic advantage, as it covers most of the political thoughts and movements that define themselves as conservative. It also highlights a fundamental commonality among very different political styles – ranging from Burkean to revolutionary conservatism – while differentiating this diverse family of discourses from non-conservative discourses. Hence, it furthers our understanding of conservatism.

After Humanity? Philosophical and Moral Perspectives on the Idea of Posthumanity

The author provides a philosophical and moral evaluation of a number of arguments against and in favour of posthumanism. Some of the arguments explored are: the claim that current evils are necessary to maintain our humanity; Sandel’s association of radical enhancement with the striving for mastery and perfection; psychological concerns about posthumanism; the “simple conservative argument” (Buchanan); the idea of unlimited longevity; as well as possible issues in the relationship between unenhanced people and posthumans. The author defends the idea that radical enhancements are justified in view of the possible lag of natural selection to select desirable/necessary current human traits. He also rejects the idea that “human nature” ought to be regarded as a moral desideratum. His conclusion is that the possibility of radical (also biomedical) human enhancements does not warrant blanket moral approval or disapproval. We ought to see what specific possibilities arise, and then judge those possibilities on their own, specific merit.

Biomedical enhancement and the pursuit of mastery and perfection: a critique of the views of Michael Sandel

This article is a comprehensive critical analysis of the objections of Michael Sandel to the possibilities of human enhancement as foreseen by recent developments in new (particularly genetic) biotechnologies. It is shown that enhancement has always been a feature of human development. The nature and possibilities of these new technologies are briefly discussed, followed by an explanation of Sandel's views. In critical response to Sandel, the author raises three arguments that are discussed in detail, followed by a conclusion that contains wrap-up arguments. The three main arguments relate, first, to Sandel's rejection of enhancement tout court, second to the (in)consistency of his argument about the ‘gifted’ nature of reality, and third to the problems raised by his idea that the striving for mastery is the main problem with enhancement. On the basis of an extensive analysis, the author finds Sandel's position untenable. It is shown that Sandel espouses the ‘simple conservative argument’ (Buchanan). The author concludes that science and technology are not value free, and that the critical evaluation of enhancements cannot lead to an overall judgment, but has to progress in a piecemeal manner. The author also concludes that the notion of ‘human nature’ cannot be regarded as a moral desideratum.

A field theory of distortion incompatibility for coupled fracture and plasticity

The displacement discontinuity arising between the crack surfaces is assigned to smooth areal/tensorial densities of crystal defects referred to as disconnections, through the incompatibility of the continuous distortion tensor. In a dual way, the disconnections are defined as line defects terminating surfaces where the displacement encounters a discontinuity. A conservation argument for their strength (the crack opening displacement) provides a natural framework for their dynamics in the form of a transport law for the disconnection densities. Similar methodology is applied to the discontinuity of the plastic displacement arising from the presence of dislocations in the body, which results in the concurrent involvement of the dislocation density tensor in the analysis. The present model can therefore be viewed as an extension of the mechanics of dislocation fields to the case where continuity of the body is disrupted by cracks. From the continuity of the elastic distortion tensor, it is expected that the stress field remains bounded everywhere in the body, including at the crack tip. Thermodynamic arguments provide the driving forces for disconnection and dislocation motion, and guidance for the formulation of constitutive relationships insuring non-negative dissipation. The conventional Peach–Koehler force on dislocations is retrieved in the analysis, and a Peach–Koehler-type force on disconnections is defined. A threshold in the disconnection driving force vs. disconnection velocity constitutive relationship provides for a Griffith-type fracture criterion. Application of the theory to the slit-crack (Griffith–Inglis crack) in elastic and elasto-plastic solids through finite element modeling shows that it allows recovering earlier results on the stress field around cracks, and that crack propagation can be consistently described by the transport scheme. Shielding/anti-shielding of cracks by dislocations is considered to illustrate the static/dynamic interactions between dislocations and disconnections resulting from the theory. Sample size effects on crack growth are evidenced in solids encountering plastic yielding.

Thermal balance and photon-number quantization in layered structures

The quantization of the electromagnetic field in lossy and dispersive dielectric media has been widely studied during the last few decades. However, several aspects of energy transfer and its relation to consistently defining position-dependent ladder operators for the electromagnetic field in nonequilibrium conditions have partly escaped the attention. In this work we define the position-dependent ladder operators and an effective local photon-number operator that are consistent with the canonical commutation relations and use these concepts to describe the energy transfer and thermal balance in layered geometries. This approach results in a position-dependent photon-number concept that is simple and consistent with classical energy conservation arguments. The operators are formed by first calculating the vector potential operator using Green's function formalism and Langevin noise source operators related to the medium and its temperature, and then defining the corresponding position-dependent annihilation operator that is required to satisfy the canonical commutation relations in arbitrary geometry. Our results suggest that the effective photon number associated with the electric field is generally position dependent and enables a straightforward method to calculate the energy transfer rate between the field and the local medium. In particular, our results predict that the effective photon number in a vacuum cavity formed between two lossy material layers can oscillate as a function of the position suggesting that also the local field temperature oscillates. These oscillations are expected to be directly observable using relatively straightforward experimental setups in which the field-matter interaction is dominated by the coupling to the electric field. The approach also gives further insight on separating the photon ladder operators into the conventional right and left propagating parts and on the anomalies reported for the commutation relations of the corresponding operators within optical cavities.

Framing the Philpotts: Anti-welfarism and the British newspaper reporting of the Derby house fire verdict

Abstract This article analyses the newspaper reporting of the Mick Philpott manslaughter verdict of 2013. Philpott is an unemployed British man who in May 2012 set fire to his house, accidentally killing six children. This article argues that the Philpott verdict provided a valuable propaganda opportunity for British politicians and elements of the British media to link the crime to ‘welfare reform’ at a time when the coalition government had begun to target welfare benefits for cuts. In particular, it is argued that the demonization of Philpott as a member of the white British underclass converged with an intensification of conservative and anti-welfarist arguments about the United Kingdom’s benefits system, reviving and reinforcing the Victorian concept of the ‘undeserving poor’ and the related notion that benefits are a reward for good behaviour rather than a right. Examining articles from national newspapers published in the days following the announcement of a guilty verdict in the trial, this article analyses the discursive framing of the stories in order to discover what kind of ideological messages were at work in the reporting of the Philpott verdict and what sorts of differences existed between these messages. The article concludes with an attempt to set this analysis in a wider socio-political context, considering how the press’s perspectives on the story relate to the ideological (re)framing of public discussion about welfare ‘benefits’ and claimants in the United Kingdom today.

Beloved Citizens: Toni Morrison’s Beloved , Racial Inequality, and American Public Policy

Toni Morrison's classic novel Beloved (1987) provides lens through which to examine how social assistance shapes African American freedom. One dominant interpretation of novel has been that it implicitly argues for importance of recognizing historical legacies of slavery upon African American lives. For example, James Berger claims that novel counters 1980s ne ©conservative arguments of black cultural pathology by showing that law and science, power and official knowledge continue to violate African American lives ( 1996,411). And George Shulman argues that novel shows that addressing historical legacies of racial exclusion must be an ongoing rather than temporary process, giving readers the feeling of urgency and political necessity of redemption people must seek but cannot guarantee, must not preclude but cannot possess (2008, 202). These scholars point to novel's central narrative, which depicts postbellum community of ex-slaves in Cincinnati grappling with traumatic legacy of slavery as it is embodied in an infant ghost named Beloved, who was murdered by her mother, Sethe, in an effort to save child from enslavement.What remains unexplored is how another narrative thread, in which characters struggle to create flourishing community during Reconstruction with few economic resources or opportunities, examines effect of divergent models of social assistance on African American lives. As work of literature rather than of political theory, Beloved does not provide direct arguments about politics. Furthermore, it does not directly advocate for certain public policies. But I suggest that it nonetheless examines how social assistance that is contingent upon work and adherence to normative moral standards reinforces African American marginalization, whereas unconditional social assistance has greater potential to mitigate it. The novel thus offers important insights into politics of debt: conditional social assistance is further extension of legacy of slavery because it makes African Americans indebted to American society for whatever aid they receive-aid often needed because of social conditions created by slavery. In contrast, novel shows how unconditional social assistance, which imposes no debt upon recipients, can more effectively address legacy of racial oppression. Over quarter century after Beloved's publication, these observations are valuable for conceptualizing relationship between contemporary public assistance programs and racial inequality in United States.It is through character of Edward Bodwin, white former abolitionist, that Morrison most obviously dramatizes how conditional social assistance exacerbates African American marginalization. There is good reason to accept Berger's claim that Bodwin represents tradition of postwar white liberalism that condescends toward African Americans, while providing them with jobs and housing (1996, 417). Berger suggests that Sethe's attack upon Bodwin at novel's conclusion represents Morrison's repudiation of white liberal paternalism and her simultaneous acknowledgment that liberals' historic commitment to assisting African Americans nonetheless deserves respect. But closer reading reveals that Morrison actually links Bodwin's assistance to his paternalistic attitude. What she shows is that his assistance actually tethers aid to work, available to recipients only on condition that individuals adhere to moral standards of conduct that he defines. For these characters to receive assistance to help meet their most basic needs, Bodwin keeps them entirely dependent upon his authority and low-wage labor.Morrison illustrates that Bodwin's type of aid effectively reproduces African American economic marginalization. Whereas Suggs performs certain domestic tasks for Bodwin in exchange for financial support, tasks such as cobbling, canning, and laundry and seamstress work, she dies with few assets and, on her deathbed, describes herself as nothing but a nigger woman hauling shoes (Morrison 1987, 179). …