.#AugustaGA "euthanized" an alligator in Lake Olmstead wfxg.com/story/38792486… Many people were bothered by this story, including myself. Only after watching a @pbs @PBSNature episode on people & lions in #Gujarat #India was I able to articulate why this seemingly trivial
event actually points to the larger issue of whether we humans are going to adapt to this planet or whether we are going to continue to act as if our choices have no consequences until this planet changes & boots us out. #IndiasWanderingLions pbs.org/video/nature-i… Rather than
change our behavior which resulted in an alligator inhabiting this lake or take measures to limit the risk it would cause harm, we humans killed it to eliminate the minor risk it posed. We again positioned ourselves *outside* of the biosphere, even though our lives would be
impossible without the biosphere's services to us. In fact, our past actions have very likely doomed humanity within the next two centuries, and we show no signs of changing our behavior. When I was doing debate in high school, there was an argument
called "The Environmental Ethic." The argument posed that humanity was doomed unless it adopted The Environmental Ethic, which posited that humans were not separate & distinct from other creatures & that human & non-human life & habitat had the same value. You would no more
clear a forest which supported an ecoystem than you would clear a housing block from a major city neighborhood. (Of course, we unfortunately do the latter all the time when capitalists decide that space can produce more money & they convince/bribe government officials to help).
Here are some resources to learn more about Environmental Ethics cep.unt.edu/default.html Another example of this, from memory, was the novel "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. academic.oup.com/isle/article-a… #Alligator #AugustaGA #RIP #humanity #environment #Biodiversity
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