shifting baseline syndrome

名词 n.

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. The tendency of each generation to consider the state the environment (or by extension any other thing) was in when they grew up or first examined it to be its natural state (baseline), normalizing changes made by prior generations. uncountable,usually
    — […] in what has been called the "shifting baseline syndrome" (Pauly 1995). For example, Trautman (1981) described Ohio in the late 18th century as characterized by a "profusion of 'durable springs and small brooks,' both flowing throughout the year, and the great amount of bog, prairie, and swamp and forest lands which were covered with water during all or much of the year." The change in the distribution, availability, and quality of water in Ohio - and many other places throughout the world - since 1800 is dramatic and is an example of the shifting baseline syndrome. If the change had occurred in the past 20 years, it would have caused widespread dismay and concern, but because the change took 200 years (or before current environmental awareness), the baseline for comparison has shifted and the change seems acceptable.

词形变化

shifting baseline syndromes plural

词源

Coined by scientist Daniel Pauly, in reference to generations of scientists treating the successively reduced fish populations of their own time, rather than the earliest recorded fish population levels, as the "baseline", so the "baseline" kept shifting.
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