<story><title>Butterflies Full of Wasps Full of Microwasps Are a Science Nightmare (2021)</title><url>https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/butterflies-parasitic-wasps-finland</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wolverine876</author><text>That we are part of some circle of whatever does not make the consequences of our actions, and therefore our actions, any better. The cyanobacteria were bad; we have more of a choice.&lt;p&gt;Also, if we release gasses that kill and impoverish large portions of us, it won&amp;#x27;t help that it&amp;#x27;s &amp;#x27;natural&amp;#x27;; it will make no difference at all.</text></item><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>We don&amp;#x27;t, and I don&amp;#x27;t bring up the following to excuse humanity for our destruction of other species, but it&amp;#x27;s still just an interesting philosophical point to consider. We&amp;#x27;re as much a part of the circle of life and evolution as all the organisms that came before us. I mean, you think &lt;i&gt;we&amp;#x27;re&lt;/i&gt; bad for other species, just think about cyanobacteria, which in their thirst for energy polluted the atmosphere with an extremely toxic gas that caused one of Earth&amp;#x27;s major extinction events.&lt;p&gt;Of course, that gas was molecular oxygen, and eventually other organisms evolved aerobic respiration, and that toxic gas is now required by many of Earth&amp;#x27;s organisms to survive. Now, that change took a billion years or so, as opposed to humans doubling CO2 concentrations in a couple hundred years, but it&amp;#x27;s still interesting to think about the crazy history of life on Earth.</text></item><item><author>keepamovin</author><text>A reminder to humans who want to undertake ecosystem engineering projects: we don&amp;#x27;t know what we&amp;#x27;re doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>HPsquared</author><text>GP&amp;#x27;s point was that cyanobacteria were NOT &amp;quot;bad&amp;quot;. They&amp;#x27;re a part of nature, how can that be bad? Good and bad are strictly human constructs, relating to human (primarily social) behaviour.</text></comment>
<story><title>Butterflies Full of Wasps Full of Microwasps Are a Science Nightmare (2021)</title><url>https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/butterflies-parasitic-wasps-finland</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wolverine876</author><text>That we are part of some circle of whatever does not make the consequences of our actions, and therefore our actions, any better. The cyanobacteria were bad; we have more of a choice.&lt;p&gt;Also, if we release gasses that kill and impoverish large portions of us, it won&amp;#x27;t help that it&amp;#x27;s &amp;#x27;natural&amp;#x27;; it will make no difference at all.</text></item><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>We don&amp;#x27;t, and I don&amp;#x27;t bring up the following to excuse humanity for our destruction of other species, but it&amp;#x27;s still just an interesting philosophical point to consider. We&amp;#x27;re as much a part of the circle of life and evolution as all the organisms that came before us. I mean, you think &lt;i&gt;we&amp;#x27;re&lt;/i&gt; bad for other species, just think about cyanobacteria, which in their thirst for energy polluted the atmosphere with an extremely toxic gas that caused one of Earth&amp;#x27;s major extinction events.&lt;p&gt;Of course, that gas was molecular oxygen, and eventually other organisms evolved aerobic respiration, and that toxic gas is now required by many of Earth&amp;#x27;s organisms to survive. Now, that change took a billion years or so, as opposed to humans doubling CO2 concentrations in a couple hundred years, but it&amp;#x27;s still interesting to think about the crazy history of life on Earth.</text></item><item><author>keepamovin</author><text>A reminder to humans who want to undertake ecosystem engineering projects: we don&amp;#x27;t know what we&amp;#x27;re doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>freedomben</author><text>GP clearly mentioned in their first paragraph that they aren&amp;#x27;t defending it by pointing out that it is natural. Assuming that they are is committing the is&amp;#x2F;ought fallacy.</text></comment>