Question

In wildlife management planned extermination of individuals in a population is called “culling”. However, there are opposing views that this planned reduction of individuals to maintain a healthy population is not culling but killing. From our understanding of ecology, the “culling” of individuals to maintain a healthy population would fall under ______________ecology and the opposing view would fall under _____________ ecology.

Answer 1

Since the inception of environmental awareness in human beings during 19th century there has been development of philosophy based on views by various environmentlist and societies. The centre or core principle of these philosophies is also varied according to their thinking about the ecosystem. In the given example of "culling" where wildlife is killed in a controlled manner for their management by humans is an example of shallow ecology. It refers to the philosophy which puts humans at the Central (anthropocentric) position . Environmental preservation is done only to the extent that it satisfy human intrest.

However, deep ecology refers to the philosophy of promoting or realising intrinsic value of nature irrespective of instrumental value to human needs. The central position is attained by the ecosystem or nature(ecocentric) . The philosophy talks about the holistic view which includes all species including humans as equal and having equal right to live and sustain themselves without any interference.