The Colonial Origins of Conservation: The Disturbing History Behind US National Parks
By Stephen Corry,
Truthout
| 08. 25. 2015
Untitled Document
Iconoclasm - questioning heroes and ideals, and even tearing them down - can be the most difficult thing. Many people root their attitudes and lives in narratives that they hold to be self-evidently true. So it's obvious that changing conservation isn't going to be an easy furrow to plow.
However, change it must. Conservation's achievements don't alter the fact that it's rooted in two serious and related mistakes. The first is that it conserves "wildernesses," which are imagined to be shaped only by nature. The second is that it believes in a hierarchy, with superior, intelligent human beings at the top. Many conservationists still believe that they are uniquely endowed with the foresight and expertise to control and manage so-called wildernesses and that everyone else must leave, including those who actually own them and have lived there for generations.
These notions are archaic; they damage people and the environment. The second also flouts the law, with its perpetual land grabs. For nature's sake as well as our own, it's crucial to expose how these ideas grew and flourished...
Related Articles
By Derrick Gingery, Pink Sheet | 11.01.2023
Some worries about heritable genetic modifications are subsiding and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks said sponsors should consider the US for regulatory advice and clinical trials in the space.
The US Food and Drug Administration’s growing...
By Annalee Armstrong and Max Bayer, Fierce Biotech | 10.23.2023
A nearly year-long clinical hold on Verve Therapeutics’ base editing therapy meant to treat a genetic form of high cholesterol has been lifted in the U.S., thanks to data from an ongoing human trial elsewhere in the world and some preclinical...
By Christina Jewett, The New York Times | 09.29.2023
The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it was moving to close what has widely been viewed as a loophole allowing certain lab tests — like those that determine the profile of a tumor or the genetic health...
By Aki Ito, Insider | 09.18.2023
Sure, there have been a few nutjobs out there who think AI will wipe out the human race. But ever since ChatGPT's explosive emergence last winter, the bigger concern for most of us has been whether these tools will soon...