I have talked before about the <acronym title="Endangered Species Act">ESA</acronym> and the the controversy with the <a href="http://www.nowherethoughts.net/sarpysam/index.php?p=354" target="_new">Preble's jumping mouse</a> not being a separate species and maybe being removed from the ESA. I found an interesting article this morning about the biologist <a href="http://www.westword.com/issues/2005-01-20/news/feature_1.html" target="_new">Rob Ramey</a> who made the discovery and some of what it has meant to him.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Tacked to a wall in Ramey's office is a copy of an illustration depicting Galileo being interrogated by Vatican inquisitors, demanding that he renounce his findings that the universe does not revolve around Earth. Ramey has drawn his own cartoon word bubbles on the drawing so that the chief inquisitor now says: "The mouse is a unique sub-species! The mouse is threatened with extinction! How dare you question our authority!" To which Galileo responds, "It may not be politically correct, but it is factually correct that the mouse is neither!"</blockquote><br />n<br />n<!–more–><br />n<br />nNow I am not comparing him to Galileo but it is a funny parallel to his situation of challenging the 'popular' viewpoint.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>"I've tried to keep my sense of humor through all this," says Ramey. "But the truth is, throughout history, when you have a dogma, and scientists challenge that dogma, no matter how good their evidence, there are those who will try to impeach their credibility. I just think that good science, like good citizenship, depends upon asking questions and deriving truth through critical thinking, and if we're blindly going along with the flow of something that's dogmatic and faith-based, and we accept something as true only because it's repeated over and over again, then we're not being good scientists or good citizens."</blockquote><br />n<br />nIntellectual honesty in the face of reapeted attacks. I love it.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>His biggest concern with the ESA, though, is that "it's driven by lawsuits, not science," he says. "The priority of the ESA, according to the letter and spirit of the law, is supposed to go to protecting single-genome, clearly unique species such as the California Condor. That should be our number-one priority. Instead, the process and the system of the ESA is bogged down with lawsuits over species which are definitely not full, distinct species, and may not even be legitimate sub-species. <br />n<br />n"Think about biodiversity as a tree that's in trouble," he continues. "Do we want to try and save the little twigs at the end of the big branches, or do we want to try and save the big branches? Which is going to save the tree in the long term, looking out a hundred, 500 years? If we keep running around filing lawsuits, trying to save all these little twigs, we're wasting conservation resources at the expense of the big branches. We just have to understand that we may have to lose some of the little twigs out there. That means that some groups will lose their ESA cash cows, but it's for the long-term good." <br />n<br />nLeaving his office, Ramey leads the way into the museum's natural-history archives. He pulls opens a tray of dead mice labeled "Preble's jumping mouse." Then a tray of "Bear Mountain meadow jumping mouse." <br />n<br />n"You see any difference?" he asks. <br />n<br />nHe shuts the drawers, then goes to a cabinet and brings out a stuffed passenger pigeon. "Extinct," he says. "Gone forever. Never coming back." He goes to another cabinet, unlocks it, extracts an ivory-billed woodpecker. "Also extinct." <br />n<br />nHe points from the passenger pigeon to the ivory-billed woodpecker. Unlike the mice, the two birds look nothing alike. <br />n<br />n"These are deep branches on the tree," he says. "These are things that are really and truly different, and they are gone forever from this world. This is where our priorities need to be. This is what really matters."</blockquote><br />n<br />nThe man makes so much sense, but that has nothing to do with the ESA today. It's all about stopping development in its tracks because that's what is wanted. Using a species to get their way, not to protect it. I hope more people listen to Dr. Ramey and carefully listen to his wisdom and honesty. They are a rare thing in todays politically correct world and are refreshing.<br />n<br />n<b>Honesty, by evil fortune tried,<br />nFinds in adversity the seed of praise.<br />nOvid</b>