Emma Marris, Nature; Drones unleashed against invasive rats in the Galápagos
"One advantage of using drones, Morley says, is that it reduces the
need to cut trails through a forest to lay poison baits or traps. He is
still working on ways to use the drones to monitor whether projects are
successful, playing with acoustic, optical or other sensors that the
drones could drop near the poison.
Using drones to kill could also
change how conservation scientists view such work, Morley says,
comparing the approach to modern warfare. “You used to be able to see
your opponent. Now, you just a press a button and you fire a missile,”
he says. “You become a little bit detached from the reality that you
have killed something or somebody over there.”
That emotional
distance could be seen as a benefit of the technology, or as a problem,
says Chelsea Batavia, a scholar of conservation ethics at Oregon State
University in Corvallis. She feels that people who kill animals for conservation
should allow themselves to feel the moral weight of their actions, and
even grieve. “Have a conversation about what you are doing and talk
through that as a group,” she advises. “Let the impact of what you are
doing hit you.”"
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, examined in the ethics and intellectual property graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. My Bloomsbury book "Ethics, Information, and Technology" will be published in Summer 2025. Kip Currier, PhD, JD
Showing posts with label conservation scientists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservation scientists. Show all posts
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Drones unleashed against invasive rats in the Galápagos; Nature, January 24, 2019
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