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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <1172@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Oct-86 12:01:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.1172
Posted: Fri Oct  3 12:01:11 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 08:41:43 EDT
References: <865@sunybcs.UUCP> <117400009@inmet>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 44

In article <117400009@inmet> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
> [my argument...] was that subtracting thousands out of many millions
> [of species] does not reduce genetic diversity  much.  It  was  also  that 
> artificial methods can preserve genetic diversity, without hindering
> technical progress or  population  growth. It also was that other artificial
> methods can actually increase genetic diversity, and do it fast.

All three sentences are seriously in error.

Subtracting thousands of species PER YEAR from millions DOES reduce genetic
diversity by a great deal, because the losses are cumulative.  And that's
not even counting the losses due to elimination of populations as species
ranges are whittled down to relicts and finally nothing.

Artificial methods cannot preserve significant genetic diversity yet, as I
have explaind in related articles in the past few days.

Artifical methods cannot increase genetic diversity in a manner comparable to
the results of evolution, as I have also explained in related articles in the
past week or two.

> >The arrogance inherent in your anthropocentric chauvinism
> 
> A nice bit of McCarthyism :-)
> 
> But I suspect your labels could be expanded into a philosophical
> argument - though incorrect.

Jan's real arrogance is that his lecturing is based in ignorance of
biological facts.

> Ecological diversity is not necessarily reduced by civilization.
> Artificial habitats are habitats too, and they can be very diverse.

Ecological diversity is much the same as species diversity.  Artifical
habitats do nothing (in less than thousands of years) to increase overall
species diversity on the globe.

I used to give Jan's political ideas the benefit of the doubt.  But now
I'm beginning to believe that they are based in the same ignorance that
his ideas of biology are.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh