Conservation of species

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 20

Conservation of species

Sir. — In 1962 Rachel Carson’s brave book “Silent Spring," which questioned the indiscriminate use of poisons and affirmed the basic responsibility of an industrialised, technological society towards the natural world, captured the imagination and answered the doubts of millions of ordinary people as to what was being done to the earth in their name. The captains of industry attacked her, but her words played a key role in launching the environmental movement. Today, 20 years later, when Oliver Riddell writes that the conservation of species \ involves a moral principle — the right to exist — and that the quality of human life depends on a world rich in biological diversity, few would disagree openly any longer. Instead, our remaining indigenous habitats and thus also species, notwithstanding their increased scarcity value, are being more subtly . sacrificed on the altar of "multiple use” whenever the exploiters can get away with it. Yet there is no virtue in multiple use unless the “uses” are mutually compatible. I cannot read my “Press” if I have already used it to light the fire or wrap up the garbage. — Yours, etc..

ERIC BENNETT. September 23, 1982.