The idea that destroying the environment will make the remaining species “better” by making sure that only the “fittest” survive betrays a near-total misunderstanding of evolution. Evolution is just the name we give to the fact that organisms (or, more precisely, genes) which survive and reproduce effectively in a given set of conditions become more frequent over time. If you clear-cut the forest, you’re not eliminating “weak” species and making room for the “strong” — you’re getting rid of species that were well-adapted to the forest and increasing the numbers of whatever organisms can survive in the resulting waste.
And if you massacre coyotes and deport grey wolves so that the alleged red wolf “species” will not have sex with other canids, what are you doing?
If you slaughter barred owls so that they will not compete with or have sex with spotted owls what are you doing?
We are preserving dead wood so that spotted owls will have suitable nests, but due to fire prevention, there is a lot more dead wood in forests than would ever happen naturally, a lot more dead wood than there ever has been in the history of the earth. The spotted owl really is an inferior species to the barred owl—and female spotted owls don’t seem to think it is a species at all.
The idea that destroying the environment will make the remaining species “better” by making sure that only the “fittest” survive betrays a near-total misunderstanding of evolution. Evolution is just the name we give to the fact that organisms (or, more precisely, genes) which survive and reproduce effectively in a given set of conditions become more frequent over time. If you clear-cut the forest, you’re not eliminating “weak” species and making room for the “strong” — you’re getting rid of species that were well-adapted to the forest and increasing the numbers of whatever organisms can survive in the resulting waste.
Even if ignore all problems ofderiving ought from is, there is problem which parts of nature we are supposed to follow.
If Darwin says “kill them all, the strongest will survive”, then Kelvin would say “kill yourself, why bother waiting to heat death of the universe?”
And if you massacre coyotes and deport grey wolves so that the alleged red wolf “species” will not have sex with other canids, what are you doing?
If you slaughter barred owls so that they will not compete with or have sex with spotted owls what are you doing?
We are preserving dead wood so that spotted owls will have suitable nests, but due to fire prevention, there is a lot more dead wood in forests than would ever happen naturally, a lot more dead wood than there ever has been in the history of the earth. The spotted owl really is an inferior species to the barred owl—and female spotted owls don’t seem to think it is a species at all.