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49 Ecology L. Currents 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/ecolwcur49 and id is 1 raw text is: The World is My Oyster and Other Tales of Domination: The Critique From Ecosystem Services Keith H. Hirokawa* Introduction: N ature as - ........................................................................... 1 I. Ecosystem Goods in Conflict with Ecosystem Needs: When the World is My O yster ............................................................................................. . . 2 II. No More Oysters, and No More Oyster Habitat....................................... 4 III. Ecosystem Services as Disruptive ......................................................... 6 C onclu sion ................................................................................................. . . 7 INTRODUCTION: NATURE AS - Nature is the idea of where we are, the basis for understanding who we are, and the place in which we are present, observant, relating, and thinking. Nature is the backdrop that contextualizes all of our knowledge and inspiration. It supplies our experiences, provides the basis for finding a sense of place, and situates us within a meaningful community. Nature might be difficult to define, yet it is the constant. Less constant are the constructs we use to understand nature. Nature might alternatively be thought of as a provider, or as chaotic, fragile, threatening, wicked, caring, beautiful, sublime, scary, or even fixable. Such ideas might be found in the Edenic narrative or a Hobbesian state, witnessed clinging to a rapidly melting chunk of frozen water, or chased through an otherwise untrammeled wilderness. The different values we impose on our experiences lend support to alternative constructs of nature. This essay takes up two competing constructions: nature as a pile of resources that are available for human use and enjoyment versus nature as a collection of processes that benefit humans. The former is reflected in what is generally thought of as resource economics-the dominant paradigm of the law's idea of nature-in which nature DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38VTiGQ8Q *Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship, Albany Law School. I would like to sincerely thank Kathleen Anderson for her invaluable research assistance, the excellent editors at Ecology Law Currents for their insights and suggestions, and Professors Cinnamon Carlarne, Karrigan Bork, and Jonathan Rosenbloom. 1