ABSTRACT
It is commonly held that there are a great many situations in which human beings ought to “butt out” of nature and let things run their course. For example, we ought not “police the jungle”: we should not save a poor antelope from being eaten by a lion, or even save starving, drowning or diseased animals facing painful deaths; we should set aside large areas of wilderness and not allow mining, clear-cutting, or other similarly destructive practices; we shouldn’t introduce alien species into a flourishing ecosystem; we shouldn’t put out forest fires caused by lightning strikes. 1 There are good reasons for these judgments. We can’t save prey from predators without removing the predators from their environment, which is not only bad for the predators but also causes other problems as the prey multiply. Even saving a drowning animal removes a potential food source from other animals in the ecosystem. Clear-cutting forests takes away habitats for many creatures, leaves an ugly landscape, and contributes to climate change. Introducing alien species can wreak havoc in an ecosystem and bring about many undesirable consequences for native species. Forest fires serve an important function in regenerating ecosystems, so putting them out can be harmful to those ecosystems.
