Countdown To CAOmageddon: Flaw #38 - No Rambunctiosness

A massive blind-spot associated with the CAOs, and with traditional environmentalism generally, is their denial that human-altered ecosystems have any function or value. We live during a time where every part of the earth has been altered by humans. That's why some have started to call this era the Anthropocene. Moreover, we should realize that the "untouched pristine" habitats that were encountered in the New World at the time of European contact were, in fact, highly altered by Native Americans and their predecessors for thousands of years. None of us have ever lived in a totally pristine environment. No such thing has existed for a long, long time.

And that is the subject of a book by Emma Marris, a writer for the journal Nature. Marris' book is called "Rambunctious Garden" where she describes the paradigm shift roiling the environmental world.

For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see this as an outdated dream that thwarts bold new plans to save the environment and prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature. Humans have changed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory, and climate change means even the remotest places now bear the fingerprints of humanity. Emma Marris argues convincingly that it is time to look forward and create the “rambunctious garden,” a hybrid of wild nature and human management.

The CAOs are out of step with these new thoughts about ecosystems (like permaculture too), and they are devoid of any recognition of the function and value of a rambunctious world.