The title of this chapter brings together two of the most critical issues raised by the relation of human beings to the natural world. At first, the rationale for bringing them together may be unclear. The threats human activities pose to biodiversity are among the most urgent concerns of environmentalists, but of course, biotechnology accounts for only a narrow range of these threats. Similarly, of the urgent ethical questions posed by biotechnology only a few are directly relevant to biodiversity. Nevertheless there is significant overlap between ethical concerns connected with biodiversity and those connected with biotechnology. This overlap appears, for example, in efforts to enlist biotechnology in the preservation of biodiversity, but the most poignant concerns arise with the prospect of impact on biodiversity from transgenic organisms. Opponents of genetically modified organisms regularly point to the potential effects of these organisms on biodiversity as a reason for prohibiting or strictly regulating research on and application of transgenics. This chapter attempts to evaluate these claims by a careful consideration of the issues they raise in the context of current scientific research.
The chapter is structured by an analysis of the factual and normative issues at stake. In order to evaluate the claims regarding transgenic research and biodiversity we must ask two preliminary questions. The first preliminary question is factual; it has to do with the potential impact of genetically engineered organisms on biodiversity. There is widespread concern about the effects such organisms may have on biodiversity, but what do we know about the likelihood of such effects? Uncertainty about these effects themselves and about the future direction of biotechnology makes this a difficult question, but we nevertheless attempt to answer it in Section 7.1.2 below in relation to the most likely foreseeable developments in transgenics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Andow, D.A., and A. Hilbeck (2004). “Science-based risk assessment for nontarget effects of transgenic crops”, BioScience 54, 637–649.
Augustine. City of God Against the Pagans.
Barlow, C. (1991). Tikanga Whakaaro—Key Concepts in Maori Culture. Auckland: Oxford University Press.
Barlow, C. (2001). “Ghost stories from the ice age”, Natural History, 110(9): 62–67.
Botkin, D.B. (2001). “The Naturalness of Biological Invasions”, Western North American Naturalist 61, 261–266.
Brock, D. (1998). “Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con”, in M. Nussbaum and C. Sunstein (eds.), Clones and Clones. New York: W.W. Norton.
Bye, R.A. (1981). “Quelites: Ethnoecology of Edible Greens—Past, Present and Future”, Journal of Ethnobiology 1, 109–123.
Bye, R.A. (1993). “The Role of Humans in the Diversification of Plants in Mexico”, in Ramamoorthy, T.P., R. Bye, A. Lot, and J. Fa (eds.), Biological Diversity of Mexico: Origins and Distribution. New York: Oxford University Press, 707–731.
Callicott, B. (1998). “The Land Ethic Dynamized”, Reflections, Special Issue No. 3. Available online: http://www.orst.edu/dept/philosophy/pese/reflections/Reflections 98/callicott.
Chapin, F.S. III, B.H. Walker, R.J. Hobbs, D.U. Hooper, J.H. Lawton, O.E. Sala, and D. Tilman (1997). “Biotic Control Over the Functioning of Ecosystems”, Science 277, 500–504.
Cohen, A.N., and J.T. Carlton (1998). “Accelerating Invasion Rate in a Highly Invaded Estuary”, Science 279, 555–558.
Daily, G.C., S. Alexander, P.R. Ehrlich, L. Goulder, J. Lubchenco, P.A. Matson, H.A. Mooney, S. Postel, S.H. Schneider, D. Tilman, and G.M. Woodwell (1997). “Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems”, Issues in Ecology 2. Washington, DC: Ecological Society of America, ISSN 1092–8987.
Derr, M. (2001). “Alien Species Often Fit in Fine, Some Scientists Contend”, New York Times, D4, Sept. 4.
Diamond, J. (2004). Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking.
Douglas, M., and A. Wildavsky (1982). Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Flannery, T. (2001). The Eternal Frontier. Melbourne: Text Publishing.
Flannery, T. (2002). The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People. New York: Grove Press.
Graham, G. (2002). Genes: A Philosophical Inquiry. London: Routledge.
Harper, J.L., and D.L. Hawksworth (1995). “Biodiversity - measurement and estimation – preface”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 345, 5–12.
Harper, J.L., and D.L. Hawksworth (1995). “Preface. Biodiversity: Measurement and Estimation”, in Hawskworth, D.L. (ed.), Biodiversity Measurement and Estimation. Oxford: The Royal Society, Alden.
Hites, R.A., J.A. Foran, D.O. Carpenter, et al. (2004). “Global assessment of organic contaminants in farmed salmon”, Science 303, 226–229.
Kass, L. (1997). “The Wisdom of Repugnance”, The New Republic, June 2.
Keown, D. (1995). Buddhism and Bioethics. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Klein, U. (2000). “Belief-views on Nature: Western Environmental Ethics and Maori World-views”, Archives of the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law 4.
Lacey, L.A., R. Frutos, H.K. Kaya, and P. Vail (2001). “Insect Pathogens as Biological Control Agents: Do They Have a Future?” Biological Control 21, 230–248.
Leopold, A. (1949). “The Land Ethic”, in A. Leopold (ed.), A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. New York: Oxford University Press, 201–226.
Lodge, D.M. (1993). “Biological Invasions: Lessons for Ecology”, Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8, 133–137.
Lodge, D.M., and K. Shrader-Frechette (2003). “Nonindigenous Species: Ecological Explanation, Environmental Ethics, and Public Policy”, Conservation Biology 17, 1–8.
Loreau, M., S. Naeem, P. Inchausti, J. Bengtsson, J.P. Grime, A. Hector, and D.U. Hooper (2001). “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowledge and Future Challenge”, Science 294, 804–808.
Lovejoy, A.O. (1936). The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Maimonides, Moses (Moshe ben Maimon). Guide of the Perplexed.
Mann, C.C., and Mark L. Plummer (2002). “Forest Biotech Edges Out of the Lab”, Science 295, 1626–1629.
McKenny, G. (2001). “Religion, Biotechnology, and the Integrity of Nature”, in M. Hanson (ed.), Claiming Power Over Life. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 169–191.
Metz, M., and J. Fütterer (2001). “Suspect Evidence of Transgenic Contamination”, Nature 416, 600–601.
Naeem, S., and J.P. Wright (2003). “Disentangling Biodiversity Effects on Ecosystem Functioning: Deriving Solutions to a Seemingly Insurmountable Problem”, Ecology Letters 6, 567–579.
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (1986). Genetic Science for Human Benefit. National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
National Research Council (1996). Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council (NRC) (2001). Environmental Effects of Transgenic Plants: The Scope and Adequacy of Regulation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Nations, J.D., and R.B. Nigh (1980). “The Evolutionary Potential of Lacandon Maya Sustained-yield Tropical Forest Agriculture”, Journal of Anthropological Research 36, 1–30.
Navarrete, S.A., and B.A. Menge (1996). “Keystone Predation: Interactive Effects of Two Predators on their Main Prey”, Ecological Monographs 66, 409–429.
Nelkin, D., and S. Lindee (1995). The DNA Mystique: The Gene as Cultural Icon. New York: W.H. Freeman.
Norton, B.G. (1987). Why Preserve Natural Variety? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
OECD (2003). Consensus Document on the Biology of Zea mays subsp. mays (Maize). OECD Environment, Health and Safety Publications, Series on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology No. 27. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Ortman, E.E. (2001). “Letter to the Editor: Transgenic Insecticidal Corn: The Agronomic and Ecological Rationale for its Use”, BioScience 51, 900–902.
Park, G. (1995). Nga Uruora: Ecology and History in a New Zealand Landscape. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
Patterson, J. (1994). “Maori Environmental Virtues”, Environmental Ethics 16(4), 397–409.
Pickett, S.T.A., V.T. Parker, and P.L. Fiedler (1992). “The New Paradigm in Ecology: Implications for Conservation Biology Above the Species Level”, in P.L. Fiedler and S.K. Jain (eds.), Conservation Biology: The Theory and Practice of Nature Conservation Preservation and Management. New York: Chapman & Hall, 65–87.
Quist, D., and I.H. Chapela (2001). “Transgenic DNA Introgressed into Traditional Maize Landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico”, Nature 414, 541–543.
Reed, D.H., and R. Frankham (2003). “Correlation Between Fitness and Genetic Diversity”, Conservation Biology 17, 230–237.
Rolston, H. (1985). “Duties to Endangered Species”, BioScience 35, 718–726.
Rolston, H. (1988). Environmental Ethics: Values in and Duties to the Natural World. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Rosenzweig, M.L. (2001). “The Four Questions: What Does the Introduction of Exotic Species do to Diversity?” Evolutionary Ecology Research 3, 361–367.
Royal Commission on Genetic Modification (New Zealand) (2002). “Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification”. Available online: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/organisms/royal-commission-gm/index.html
Sagoff, M. (1999). “What’s Wrong with Exotic Species?” Available online: http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPP/fall1999/exotic_species.htm
Schmithausen, L. (1997). “The Early Buddhist Tradition and Ecological Ethics”, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 4.
Science and Environmental Health Network (1998). “The Wingspread Consensus Statement on the Precautionary Principle”. Available online: http://www.sehn.org/wing.html
Serratos-Hernández, J.-A., F. Islas-Gutiérrez, E. Buendía-Rodríguez, and J. Berthaud (2004). “Gene Flow Scenarios with Transgenic Maize in Mexico”, Environmental Biosafety Research 3, 149–157.
Sessions, W. (1991). “Deep Ecology and Global Ecosystem Protection”, in M. Oelschlaeger (ed.), The Wilderness Condition. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.
Shrader-Frechette, K. (1995). “Evaluating the Expertise of Experts”, Risk 6.
Shrader-Frechette, K. (1998). “Ecological Sense and Environmental Nonsense”, Reflections, Special Issue No. 3. Available online: http://www.orst.edu/dept/philosophy/pese/reflections/Reflections 98/shrader.
Shrader-Frechette, K. (2004). “Risk and Reason”, Ethics 114, 376–380.
Slobodkin, L.B. (2001). “The Good, the Bad and the Reified”, Evolutionary Ecology Research 3, 1–13.
Slovik, P. (1999). “Trust, Emotion, Sex, Politics, and Science: Surveying the Risk-assessment Battlefield”, Risk Analysis 19, 689–701.
Sober, E. (1986). “Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism”, in B. Norton (ed.), The Preservation of Species. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 173–194.
Sunstein, C. (2002). Risk and Reason: Safety, Law, and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Symstad, A.J., D. Tilman, J. Willson, and J. Knops (1998). “Species Loss and Ecosystem Functioning: Effects of Species Identity and Community Composition”, Oikos 81, 389–397.
Taube, K. (1996). “The Olmec Maize God: The Face of Corn in Formative Mesoamerica”, RES Anthropology and Aesthetics 29/30: 39–81.
Taylor, P. (1986). Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae.
Thomas, K. (1983). Man and the Natural World. London: Pantheon.
United Methodist Church (1992). “Genetic Science Task Force Report to the 1992 General Conference”, Church and Society 18, 113–123.
Vieyra-Odilón, L., and H. Vibrans (2001). “Weeds as Crops: The Value of Maize Field Weeds in the Valley of Toluca, Mexico”, Economic Botany 55, 426–443.
Whitham, T.G., W.P. Young, G.D. Martinsen, C.A. Gehring, J.A. Schweitzer, S.M. Shuster, G.M. Wimp, D.D. Fischer, J.K.Bailey, R.L. Lindroth, S. Woolbright, and C.R. Kuske (2003). “Community and Ecosystem Genetics: A Consequence of the Extended Phenotype”, Ecology 84, 559–573.
Williamson, M. (1996). Biological Invasions. London: Chapman & Hall.
Woodsen, M.M. (2001). “If Oak Malady Moves East, Many Trees Could Die”, New York Times, F3, Sept. 4.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Agar, N., Lodge, D.M., McKenny, G.P., Wolfenbarger, L. (2008). Biodiversity and Biotechnology. In: Lustig, B.A., Brody, B.A., McKenny, G.P. (eds) Altering Nature. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 98. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6923-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6923-9_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6922-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6923-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)