Perspectives on the 'Alien' versus 'Native' Species Debate: A Critique of Concepts, Language and Practice

The classification of species as either 'native' or 'alien' is one of the organizing principles of conservation, but the validity of this dualism has increasingly been questioned, sparking debates which raise quintessentially geographical questions about place, space, nature and humanity-nature interactions. This discussion reviews the key criticisms of the native/alien construct, including its spatiotemporally arbitrary character, its disturbingly xenophobic associations, the logical problems of attributing native or alien status to our own species, and the ethical disjunction between the promotion of a multicultural human society and the persecution of 'foreign' species. Given that the native/alien polarity is a subset of the discredited nature/culture duality, its conceptual foundations seem irredeemably fractured. An alternative framework based on a 'damage criterion' rather than putative biogeographical origins is advocated.</p

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least 4 m. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 yr, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit. © 2023. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved.Open access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]