Ecoscience: Snail Darters and the Importance of Ecosystems

By Anne And Paul Ehrlich
Published on May 1, 1979
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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Anne and Paul Ehrlich liken the importance of ecosystems and the individual life forms within them to the rivets that hold together a plane: losing any one might not cause a wing to fall off, but each lost rivet weakens the whole.

Many people seem to wonder whether ecologists have gone off
the deep end in the struggle to protect endangered species.
We are often asked, “Isn’t it preposterous that the
existence of such an insignificant fish as the snail darter
should be allowed to stop a public works project like the

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