I was asked to give a presentation to the Students of Sustainability Conference at Griffith University on South Bank. Here is the slideshow which drove that talk.
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Interdependence
Anthropocentrism
The belief that there is a moral chasm between humankind and all other life
Overlap with the concept of speciesism
Convenient, unquestioned assumption underlying human exceptionalism
The philosophical underpinnings of our society largely ignored
Speciesism
"...a prejudice or bias in favour of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species" Peter Singer, Animal Liberation, 1975
Come to have a wider connotation, such as the difference in treatment we require of pets and farm animals
Pigs for example have higher general intelligence than dogs, but the law allows them to be treated much more brutally
Evolution
The real "creation" story...
Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago
Life began as early as 3.7 billion years ago
Current estimates are 8.7 million species
Late comers
Mammals 320 million years ago
Primates 85 million years ago
Humans and chimpanzees separated 7.5 million years ago
Homo sapiens somewhere between 250000 - 400000 years ago
Humans have existed for less than 1% of 1% of the journey of life
Destruction
Extinction of species at least 1000 times the "natural" rate
Quarter of all remaining mammals at risk of extinction
Less than 10% of large fish remain in oceans compared to 1950 levels
Loss of 50% of all vertebrate wildlife in last 50 years
Using resources of 1.5 planets every year
"Current rates of extinction are about 1000 times the likely background rate of extinction" - The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection, Science 30 May, 2014
"Of the 5,487 mammal species assessed, nearly one-quarter of species (22.2 %) are globally threatened or extinct, representing 1,219 species" - IUCN Red List 2016
"we estimate that large predatory fish biomass today is only about 10% of pre-industrial levels" - Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities, Ransom A. Myers & Boris Worm, Nature 15 May 2003
"humanity’s demand on nature has exceeded what our planet can replenish. We would need the regenerative capacity of 1.5 Earths to provide the ecological services we currently use"
"in less than two human generations, population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by half"
- Living Planet Report 2014 - WWF, Zoological Society of London, Global Footprint Network, Water Footprint Network
Overpopulation
Oppression
92.2 billion farm animals imprisoned and slaughtered each year
Untold numbers of, maybe a trillion, sea creatures, much of it "by-catch" - only counted in tonnage
More animals killed per day than all humans killed in wars during the 20th century
Branding, dehorning, castrating, tail docking, debeaking, all routine and without pain relief
~200 million animals used in experiments worldwide
56 billion animals - FAO Stats 2009
1 - 3 trillion wild fish - Fish Count 2016
Cattle treatment in Australia, see Meat and Livestock Australia
"We can only estimate the number of vertebrate animals used in experiments worldwide because not all experiments on vertebrate species are recorded in all countries. However, it is believed that around 200 million vertebrate animals are used for scientific experiments each year." frame.org.uk
Environment and Livestock
The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global - UN FAO, 2006
30% of the earth's entire land surface dedicated to livestock
Percentage in Australia slightly higher
30% of Earth's arable land dedicated to livestock feed
Overpopulation - More cattle, and 3.5 times more sheep and lambs than people in Australia
Land surface and arable land from Livestock's Long Shadow, FAO 2006
Cattle numbers from Meat and Livestock Australia
Other Australian statistics from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Land Use and Livestock sections, 2009-2010
Domination
Major religions
The earth and everything in it created for humans
Human life is either the highest or the only meaningful life
Only humans have an immortal soul or human males are the highest form of perceptible life
Earth is just a staging ground for the "true" reality or afterlife
God being all-powerful controls all things
"Three focus groups held with Muslim, Christian and Secular participants...Beliefs in divine intervention and afterlife reduce perceived climate change risk" - The impact of religious faith on attitudes to environmental issues: A mixed methods study. Aimie L.B. Hope, Christopher R. Jones
"Our results show that members of Judeo-Christian traditions are less concerned about environmental protection than their nonreligious peers, and that religiosity somewhat intensifies these relationships for evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and mainline Protestants" - The Role of Religion in Environmental Attitudes, Matthew B. Arbuckle1,* and David M. Konisky2
Christianity
"Let us make mankind...so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26
"The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man" Corinthians 11:3
Repeated that faith is more important than works. Romans 3:28, 5:1, 4:1-5 etc.
Heaven and hell destination for all - Mathew 25:31 - 25:36, Luke 13:23-28
Islam
Animal sacrifice still practised. On the Haj each pilgrim required to sacrifice a goat, cow or camel
"The Earth is green and beautiful, and Allah has appointed you his stewards over it" - Hadith
"Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other" - Quran 4:34
"those who believe and do good deeds, they are dwellers of Paradise, they dwell therein forever" - Quran 2:82
Judaism
Christian creation story taken from Judaism, earth is mans dominion
Humans created in the image of god
Idea of Elam Ha-ha (the world-to-come) which the righteous will be resurrected in not clear, most believe it to be another realm similar to concepts of heaven
Buddhism
Life release, involves often buying an animal destined to be slaughtered and releasing it
6 realms, in which humans inhabit the second highest
Many schools consider reality to be something of a dream
The real sky is (knowing) that samsara and nirvana are merely an illusory display — Mipham Rinpoche
Nirvana - final state "it is recognized that there is nothing but what is seen of the mind itself" - Surangama Sutra
Hinduism
Animal sacrifice still common, though not as common as in ancient times
Reality an illusion, a staging ground for karma and rebirth
Ultimate reality is moksha, union with Brahma
Secular belief
Whilst a civilising influence, has not led to a consistent dramatic change in values
Killing god brought us little closer to other species
Athiests have maintained many of the core concepts of religion
Human life still generally considered the only meaningful life
Meat consumption not strongly correlated with religiosity
Eg Denmark one of the least religious countries in the world, also has one of the highest levels of meat consumption - Religiosity Highest in World's Poorest Nations, Gallup 2010; Current Worldwide Annual Meat Consumption per capita. FAO 2013
Factory farms common in countries with both high and low levels of religiosity
Environmental footprint follows income more closely than attitudes
Scientific belief
Scientific method our best tool for understanding reality but...
Human exceptionalism in much of science resembles religious ideas
Obsession with the separation of humans from all other animals
Hubris - often an inability to understand its own limitations
Glossing over of the huge environmental problems it has caused
Historical indifference to the interests of other life
Benefits of narcissism?
Believing we have ownership of the world allows us to act selfishly
Psychological status pay off in unquestioned superiority
Simplifies world view, us and them - "What men really want is not knowledge, but certainty", Bertrand Russell
Who are we?
Named ourselves the "thinking" or "wise" ape, however evidence for the latter remains inconclusive
Many individual's strive for high ideals , but as a species, humans are destructive, selfish and near sighted
Appear to more an instinctive intricate being, rather than a reasoning philosophical one
Have the ability to think at a high level, so there remains hope for change
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endless rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which one may be optimistic about the future of mankind." - Sigmund Freud
Re-thinking us
Human motivation key and primary motivators are status, happiness and the sex drive
Status shifted from wealth, power and competitiveness, to selflessness and cooperation
Sexuality reoriented from a highly controlled and repressed system
Happiness based on selfishness and consumption tried for decades, perhaps centuries and has failed
Freud's basic analysis that we are motivated by the sex drive and need to be important are consistent with evolutionary theory
GDP growth more than doubled 1950-2000 - Australia's century since federation at a glance, Australia Government, Treasury
The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness - Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco working paper May 2009
American's average buying power has almost tripled since the 1950s, while reported happiness has remained almost unchanged. (Happiness data from National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey; income data from Historical Statistics of the United States and Economic Indicators.)
The Skill of Happiness By Matthieu Ricard
Interdependence
We still have a pre darwinian conception of our place in nature
Darwin unfolded our creation story and showed that all beings were inter-related: sharing 50% of our genetic makeup with plants, 99% with bonobos and chimpanzees
Our treatment of other animals ignores how much of ourselves is reflected in them
We share DNA remnants from at least two other hominin ancestors, Neanderthal and Denisovan
Ideas for progress
Bantu word "ubuntu" - I am because you are
Taking individual responsibility - Libertarian Socialism
Deep ecology based on empiricism
Rational humanism
Categorical imperative
Peter Singer - Animal Liberation and Effective Altruism
Ubuntu
Competitive society offers happiness only for those who perceive themselves as winners
We are formed in opposition to the rest of reality
Happiness probably best achieved in a society which is conducive to it
Libertarian Socialism
Also called left-wing anarchism
Individual freedoms need to be negotiated or they become "might makes right"
Worker self-management
Social structure without hierarchy
Individual responsibility - anarchism requires individual evolution before societal revolution
Deep Ecology
Counter to early environmental movement that preserved nature as something useful or desirable to humans
All creatures have a right to be
Human destruction of the ecosphere is a crime against all other life
Wild Law a compatible framework
Empiricism
Basing knowledge on the senses
Evidence and experience over logic and intuition
Assumptions about reality need to be tested
Acknowledges truth often counter intuitive
Humanism
Concerned with human potential and flourishing
Rationalism and empiricism over dogma and superstition
Secular, science based view of the world
Poorly named, and does suffer from human exceptionalism
Categorical imperative
Immanuel Kant
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
Useful guide to contemplating the morality of our actions
Has implications for the environment, human welfare and many other fields
Ultimately we must become self limiting
Animal Liberation
Written by Peter Singer in 1975
Explains the cruelty inherent in the farming and experimentation industries and asks us to boycott them
World and Australian wide movement advocates for animals
Movement largely vegan but not exclusively so
"Animals are here with us, not for us"
Effective Altruism
Much charitable given motivated by instinctive reactions
Complex worldwide problems required greater thought
Utilitarian concept of how each of us can do the greatest good
Charity evaluation to see which charity helps the most for a given donation
Final thoughts
The upliftment of humanity is our great collective work
We should not lose hope when we have not yet come into our power
We can only see as deeply into existence as we are
All change is individual, but it is movements that coalesce change - It is only together that we can do this
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