ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses as much about facts as about values, and questions arise about what facts and values are and how they relate to each other. The statements about ecosystems or their components and the relations among them can and do involve or implicate statements about what promotes or undermines the system's stability or integrity, that is, about what changes have value or dis-value relatively to the system. The chapter also discusses the conservationist approaches to environmental matters emphasize conservation of the environment for future human use. It summarizes some statements of value can be derived at least from some statements of fact. In an attempt to resolve the question of whether it would be wrong not to preserve each Houston toad one can preserve and merely preserve the Houston toad species, one might consider appealing to a professional code, say, that of the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals.
