I just finished an oceanography exam, so I figured this would be a fitting time to post about the Blaschka glass talk from last week. Being in that course, I already had a pretty good idea what Drew Harvell was going to talk about with respect to coral reefs and biodiversity, and I think I had heard about the Blaschka glass structures as well. It’s an amazing research area, and I’ve gained a great appreciation for marine biology from Professor Monger’s course, but I take some issue with the way Dr. Harvell presented her talk.

As I expressed when I asked her about why it was our duty to save such species like starfish dying of viruses and endangered species, I question whether or not it’s our place to interfere with the course of nature. When she talked about the massive starfish death off the coast of California, it sounded like her motivation was to fix things, when really a viral epidemic is a completely natural occurrence and we have nothing to do with it. Furthermore, I found her motivation to conserve marine biodiversity, underscored by the beautiful glass structures, amounting to nothing more than “these animals look pretty, so we think they should be protected.”

I was playing devil’s advocate. Of course, I knew better.

The massive starfish deaths off the coast, I have come to learn, are thought to be caused by the weakening of the starfish immune system by unusually warm waters on the West Coast. What’s causing the warm waters? Global climate change. What’s causing global climate change? Humans. It’s indirectly an artificial change to the ocean. And the endangerment of species? Caused by ocean acidification, and, again, global warming, all caused by humans. So this isn’t nature taking its course. This is human arrogance at its finest.

That said, I take issue with how Drew Harvell presented her talk, and I think she would do well to change its tone to a more self-conscious message, that humans are the cause of lost biodiversity, and it’s our responsibility to fix it.