Image credit: colfelly/Pixabay s human savagery a thing of the past? Is it a trait our ancestors possessed in abundance, but it was ironed out from the human psyche by the civilizing process? Villainy corrupting the soul. Is it really gone? No,...
Recent Essays
A Bear is not just a Bear: Recognizing the Individual in Wildlife Conservation
A Bear is not just a Bear: Recognizing the Individual in Wildlife Conservation
Disregarding the individual is not only antithetical to appreciating sentience but also detrimental to enhancing conservation efforts. An ethical failure goes hand in hand with an ecological one.
No Place for Grizzly Bear Hunt: Ethics and Emotions Informed by Science
No Place for Grizzly Bear Hunt: Ethics and Emotions Informed by Science
Hunting organizations distorted opposition to trophy hunting, painting it as emotionally motivated and scientifically invalid, but this opposition is firmly founded in science. It is both ethically and morally wrong to inflict suffering on sentient beings and endanger grizzly populations for frivolous entertainment
In Appreciation of John Livingston’s Writing: The Harsh Price of Our Alienation from Nature
In Appreciation of John Livingston’s Writing: The Harsh Price of Our Alienation from Nature
Livingston sees humans as a species that has gone astray from the natural order. He argues that our reliance on prostheses, such as technology and ideology, has led to our disconnection from the natural world. The only way to protect nature is to see it as an extension of ourselves.
Language and the Knife: Silencing Nature
Language and the Knife: Silencing Nature
The objectification of wildlife and the use of euphemisms have stripped wild animals of their cognitive and emotional domains. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAM) perpetuates this objectification by defining wild animals as "public trust resources" that are "renewable" if managed "wisely."
The technocratic, euphemistic language and the objectification of wildlife have normalized hunting, making it psychologically acceptable for hunters.
The Siege on Wolves: When Unchallenged Science Sanctions Cruelty
The Siege on Wolves: When Unchallenged Science Sanctions Cruelty
As a society, we are moving away from the dominance paradigm and increasingly embracing the mutualism paradigm. Social values are not static, and what was once acceptable is no longer. Therefore, the death and suffering of sentient creatures necessitate redefining what the best science really means and complementing it with social and ethical values predominating in the twentieth century.
Sharing Space with Wildlife Demands Ethics
Sharing Space with Wildlife Demands Ethics
The miracle of sentient life and the agony of suffering demand establishing a code of ethics that would govern all structures of wildlife management.