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In the case of Henderson Island (and other Polynesian islands), they were attempting to eradicate rats who likely lived there for hundreds of years, not «recent invaders».

Their own data show Henderson rats to be a distinct race. Give them couple thousand years, and they might evolve into a separate species.

This amounts to destroying diversity to save it.

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Yes, one way or another, us trying to re-engineer biodiversity, is like doing as much damage or irreversible future consequences. I am all for rats, who now number more or less 1 billion... It is an overshoot, and is bound to collapse, like humans (8 billion).

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Very interesting, reading this felt like an army of rats running through my brain dropping tasty cheese balls of knowledge!

To state the obvious, it's a hard one isn't it. Our impact on the rest of life on earth without bothering to try and manage it at scale has been so vast that, today, it's making us want micromanage. We're then faced with the complexity and pitfalls of nature's complexity.

I guess that's the conundrum I'm hoping people will join me in thinking through over on Green Box - as we try and navigate creating a more sustainable world while standing on the precipice of overshoot.

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Hi Green Box. Appreciate your feedback and concur with " it's making us want micromanage." While we may kill rats and love cats, the ecological overshoot continues one way or another. "Nature's complexity" points to deep ecology, in terms of loyalty to and the sheer immensity of... I am following Green Box and look forward to the discourse, navigating incoming troubled futures... Keep up the good work!

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Thank you for the kind words, it's great to have you as a reader. Likewise, I'm looking forward to following esoteric ecology case studies and artistic experiments here too!

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