Discussion Questions
Pena Chapter 2
CCS 300
Ecologies of Chaos
This chapter sets more of the context of Mexican-American Experience with the land.
In the last chapter we talked about ecology, in this chapter, we discuss different types of
ecology and the ethos of how people related to ecology.
Begins with an idea of chaos theory.
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What is chaos theory?
How does it relate to the study of ecology?
Would a chaotic ecologist agree with Odum’s premise of homeostasis?
Ecology of chaos also focused on humans as what? .
Ecologists were now beginning to recognize that every study had to take humans
into account, why?
6. Disturbance ecology. How can it “play havoc with conventional resource
management?”
7. Conservation biology came into its own with the passage of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973. Why?
8. According to a conservation biologist, is a disturbance (like a flood) a good thing
or a bad thing for biodiversity?
9. What IS a bad thing for conservation biologist, in terms of biodiversity loss?
10. What do conservation biologists suggest has a remedy for habitat fragmentation?
11. What is Pena’s criticism of conservation biologists?
12. Restoration ecology seeks to restore a damaged environment, but what are some
of the questions that Pena asks about this branch of ecology?
13. Pena talks about environmental history as being important for where we are now.
What is colonialism and how has it potentially created current environmental
problems? (Invasions of plants and animals, ex. Dandelion)
14. What is imperialism, and how might it be responsible for current environmental
problems?
15. If conservation biologists are concerned with the loss of biological diversity, what
loss might environmental anthropologists (aka ethnobiologists) be concerned
about?
16. What are some examples of ethnobiology?
17. Pena claims that conservation biologists have drawn too hard a line between
peoples and nature? Have they? Can people be good? He says there are “more
than a handful of examples where they are.
18. Are humans a keystone species? Why or why not?
19. TEK (Traditional Env. Knowledge) is often depicted as primitive and backward.
What is one example Pena gives of this?
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20. Lastly, Pena introduces us to political ecology – study of political conflicts
involving the environment.
21. One issue in political ecology is the critique of sustainable development. What is
sustainable development?
22. Why is it believed to be important?
23. What is Tragedy of the Commons?
24. Is this a real need in Pena’s view?
25. Concept of poverty. “… there are two kinds of poverty; one is ‘imagined
poverty’ of a subsistence lifestyle, and the other is the poverty of deprivation.”
Explain.
26. Criticism of the top down versus bottom approach to management. Explain.
27. Why is science important in all of this? (legitimizes policy approaches)
28. Is this good or bad according to Pena? (Not so good b/c it can legitimize
destruction, i.e. science says a dam is needed, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t)
Journal about
 Human role in ecosystem
 Which branch of the ecologies that we discussed you most identify with and why?
 (Read list again)
 Your pre-conceived notions about Mexican-American attitudes toward the
environment – before reading chapter 4 and after.
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