Quote Originally Posted by Stefan-A View Post
Well, ecosystem already has a definition.

Depends on which books you take and how many it had to begin with. That's the point. Compare the Library of Congress to your local library.

Library of Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Which definition is that. If you take an ecosystem with 1 million different species and take away 95% that still leaves 50,000 species. That ecosystem will probably survive, but, is that ecosystem as diverse and as stable as the ecosystem that it replaced. Certainly not as diverse and not as likely as stable.

The 995 I typed should have been 95% which I am sure you figured out. The point is, 95% less of anything that is generally considered a good thing is not as good, and diversity, be it in an ecosystem or a library, is generally considered a good thing. Now if that 95% just happened to eliminate all the bad things then I suppose you consider it a good thing but if we expect that th 95% would be applied equally across the board to both good and bad things then that would not be the case (I think you can follow that)

To take it back a bit, what I think you are saying, and I am not trying to put words into your mouth, rather just stating my interpretation of your comments so correct me if I am wrong, is that the extinction of a few species or even a few dozen or even a few hundred or thousand is not going to make a difference. If this is what you are saying then I agree with you 100%. To be perfectly honest I find it to be more than a little extreme that some people will stand in the way of progress to save some subspecies of animal which is more than abundant in other parts of the world. I am talking about progress that will be a benefit to mankind like a windmill farm or solar farm (if those are correct terms) and not just another shopping mall or subdivision.

My point is, and I am not sure how the original post came to this point, is that an ecosystem devoid of 95% of its original makeup is not as desirable as the original. That is my opinion and you can make points that might sway that opinion a bit but unless it is a really compelling argument (like the elimination of disease) then I won't change my mind.

This is a good thread and even though it seems to be leading away from the original intention of the site (Thamnophis) I enjoy discussions like this.