“Physician, do no harm” (Hippocrates, Greece, 5th century BC) is one of the classic ethical standards of medicine. Of course as medical science has progressed, treatments that were once considered to be beneficial are now known to cause harm, so one has to apply these standards to the time and place of action. How does all of this apply to ecology and environmental science?
All science is or should be evidence-based and the job of the ecologist is to examine and measure the evidence about how the biological world works, how natural populations, communities, and ecosystems operate and continue to exist. Given that evolution is the background to all these operations, in the long term individual species will come and go and change the dynamics we now describe. At the level of basic or “blue-sky” research, ecologists run into few ethical issues. But at the level of applied ecology, we become the ‘physicians of the world’ because we must assess the problems that arise in the natural world from the actions or inactions of humans. Consequently when ecologists investigate problems caused by mining, logging, aquaculture, or agriculture, and the associated issues caused by population growth, we have an ethical responsibility captured by the Hippocratic Oath.
In many situations ecologists and environmental scientists do well, laying out the issues, the science behind the measured effects, and the best predictions they can make about future changes. Climate change science is the best current example. But in many areas the conclusions of our best ecologists and environmental scientists crash head on into the economic train that drives 95% of decision making at the political and business levels. This is the key point where the Hippocratic Oath must enter if we wish to behave ethically. We cannot allow companies or the government to carry out environmental policies that are harmful to the populations, communities and ecosystems of the Earth without our voices being heard. This does not permit us to fabricate evidence or extrapolate beyond what is known. It does permit us to say what is not known and needs investigation, and that the policy of “what you do not know cannot hurt you” is stupidity squared. None of this endears us to the business community or the government bent on economic growth at all costs.
We can hope that this is changing, albeit slowly. Politicians and oil companies now at least talk about ‘sustainability’ while pushing ahead. But if more wealth is gained at the expense of the Earth we are lost in the long term. A major problem for ecologists is that operational changes are made in forestry, agriculture and mining with little thought to their consequences for biodiversity and ecologists are left to pick up the pieces later. If you wish an immediate example, fracking for oil and gas is more than enough. This is not an intelligent way to operate if we wish to be stewards of the Earth. So in every bit of ecology we do, we need to keep the Hippocratic Oath in mind, and do our best to stop harming the Earth.
And at the political level, we could take the radical step of asking that every Minister of the Environment ought to be trained in environmental science and ecology, and understand the environmental problems of the Earth.