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biologist Michael Soulé has written, "Certainly the idea that species live in integrated communities is a myth." He adds, "So-called biotic communities, a misleading term, are constantly changing in membership.” By insisting on integrated systems, “the science of ecology has been hoist on its own petard.” Soulé, Michael. 1995. “The social siege of nature.” Reinventing Nature? Responses to postmodern deconstruction. eds. M.E. Soule and G. Lease. Washington: Island Press. 143.

45Davis, Mark et al. 2011. “Don't Judge Species On Their Origins.” Nature. June (474): 153-54.

46 For a review of this literature, see: Kallis, G. 2011. “In defence of degrowth,” Ecological Economics. 70: 873–880.

47 Costanza, Robert. 1991. “Ecological economics: a research agenda.” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. 2:335-357. 339. See also: Costanza, Robert, Cumberland, John, Daly, Herman, Goodland, Robert, and Richard Norgaard. 1997. “Chapter 3.” An Introduction to Ecological Economics. CRC Press.

48 Solow, Robert M. 1973. “Is the End of the World at Hand?” in Andrew Weintraub, Eli Schwartz, and J. Richard Aronson, eds. The Economic Growth Controversy. White Plains, NY: Institute of Arts and Sciences Press. 49.

49 Farber, S.C., et al. 2002. “Economic and ecological concepts for valuing ecosystem services.” Ecological Economics. 41: 375–392. 382.

50 Stavins, Robert N. 2008. "Environmental Economics." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume.

51 Costanza, Robert, et al. 1997. “The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital.” Nature. 387.

52 Kosoy, N. and Corbera, E. 2010. “Payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism.” Ecological Economics. 228:1236.

53 McCauley, D.J. 2006. “Selling Out on Nature.” Nature. 443: 27-28.

54 Costanza, Robert. 2006. “Correspondence.” Nature. October 19. 443: 749.

55 Gretchen Daily, quoted in: Petit, Charles. 1997. “Natural Environment Gets a Price Tag – $33 Trillion.” San Francisco Chronicle. May 15.

56 Cropper, Maureen L. and Wallace E. Oates. 1992. “Environmental Economics: A Survey.” Journal of Economic Literature. 30: 675-740.

57 Krutilla, J. V. 1967. “Conservation Reconsidered.” American Economic Review. 57: 777-86.

58 Hahn, Robert W. 2009. “An Evaluation of Government Efforts to Improve Regulatory Decision Making.” International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics. 3: 245–298. 245.

59 Hahn, Robert W. 2009. “An Evaluation of Government Efforts to Improve Regulatory Decision Making.” International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics. 3: 245–298. 250.

60 Kennedy, Duncan. 1998. “Law and Economics from the Perspective of Critical Legal Studies.” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law. Edited by Peter Newman, Macmillan Reference Ltd.

61 Hubbell, S. P. 2001. “Chapter 1.” The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

LIBERALISM’S MODEST PROPOSALS

Or, the Tyranny of Scientific Rationality

Daniel Sarewitz

“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…”

— Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal,” 1729

Jonathan Swift’s famous satirical essay remains shockingly effective nearly 300 years after its publication. What was Swift’s secret? In part, it lies in the deadpan delivery of an unspeakably macabre solution to the problem of Irish poverty. But what really chills the soul is the author’s analytical precision — the cold logic and hard data as the argument proceeds from problem statement to proposed solution:

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes