author : Robert Henry Peters

This book offers an example of scientific criticism in a critique of contemporary ecology. It argues that science is a device to provide information about nature through predictions, but that much of ecology cannot be science because it provides no concrete information. Much of the rest of ecology provides information of such poor quality that it can only be soft science. Although instances of these deficiencies have often been identified, the pervasiveness of the problems has not been fully acknowledged, nor have the similarities among different problem areas been appreciated. If ecology and environmental science are to grow to meet the needs of the present decade and next millenium, scientists in these fields will need far more acute critical abilities than they have yet demonstrated.

Ecology suffers because it has ignored or minimized the important criterion of predictive power in assessing scientific quality. Instead, ecologists offer logical rationalization, historical explanation and mechanistic understanding, so that the predictive failure of the science goes almost unnoticed. Given this context, ecologists fall prey to a number of minor failings that complicate and confound any assessment of the science. Even when predictions are possible, they are often vague, inaccurate, qualitative, subjective and inconsequential. Some of ecology has become scholastic puzzle-solving that directs concern away from the serious problems confronting humanity.

Ecology can be effective if we can agree on objectives and work to get the relevant information. This sort of ecology – informative and predictive – is already applied to problems in autecology, community ecology, limnology, ecotoxicology, etc. Ecology can become a useful practical science, providing the tools we need to defend the earth and protect our own future, but first we must recognize present inadequacies. his book was written to promote such a development. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in ecology and the environmental sciences. It should interest professionals in both areas as well as geographers, landscape architects and others who now try to extract useful information from contemporary ecology.