• Question: Do you think that development in science to help the human race is more important than helping develop science in aid of creatues whose habitats we have destoyed?

    Asked by u26durberk to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Good question.

      Ultimately in a them or us type scenario I would put us first.

      However, ideally you should do both. I don’t even have to say this to be altruistic ( not thinking of yourself). You can argue that those creatures or their habitats could be very important to our survival either because they are important links in the food chain or because we can discover new cures/treatments for human disease by studying them. I think at the moment I would rather concentrate science funding on fighting famine/disease than resurrecting the dodo however.

      i would like a pet dodo though. Maybe when we have global heath and happiness!

    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hi u26durberk,

      I don’t think it’s an either/or choice we have – we are part of the world, and if we don’t look after it as a whole, we are going to end up in a bigger mess than we’re already in! And as the number of humans increases (there are likely to be around 9 billion of us by 2050) and our demands on the Earth increase, it’s going to be even more important to develop science and technologies that benefit all parts of the ecosystem – not just us.

      Think that’s my sermon for the day done 🙂

    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hey u26durberk.

      I’ve actually argued with friends about this, but in terms of charities rather than science, so it’s a slightly different angle.

      I think both are important.
      We wouldn’t be much without our ecosystem; all the other species we share our space with. At least, I don’t think so.

      I get annoyed when people complain about animals in cities for example; they were here first! All this hysteria about foxes right now is very irritating; typical media scaremongering.

      Anyway, I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive; science that helps us often helps other animals and vice versa. When we develop drugs we learn about other species at the same time. Genetics has particularly contributed to this, now we know how similar and different we are from many other creatures, in many aspects of biology and physiology.

      I can’t say one is more important than the other, but because we ARE humans, we have a strong instinct to help ourselves first.

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