Imagine if you were a snake..

 

 

 Environmental ethics

 

Imagine if you were a snake. Imagine if you had become a resilient species that adapted to this new ecosystem and are successfully surviving in a forest in Honduras. Imagine that every time you manage to catch a prey, you feel successful; you are the master of the forest. Now, imagine if one day you are sunbathing when you hear the roar of a truck, the shovels digging the earth. Imagine that you get scared and hide in the cave without understanding what is happening. Imagine that you get trapped and you are very scared. When you carefully manage to go outside, you realize that your home is no longer there. It has been converted into a golf course. Imagine that you try to look for food, but it is scarce, resources are limited. At the end of that endless corridor, you manage to see the light and carefully decide to look for resources in these places. The ecological system is no longer available for you. You reflect on humans and their anthropogenic perspective, and why they cannot see the inherent values of each element in the ecosystem. You feel overwhelmed and can't stop thinking that the people who destroyed your little house had no idea of environmental ethics. You also remember how the little ant commented on Leopoldo’s biological community in the land of ethics. It is difficult for you to believe that the little ant better understood that the tree leaf had to be eaten only when it had a vital need, as “Basic principles of deep ecology” said. You cannot reach the light. Your courage begins to disappear; you never find food nor water.

    We must extend our morality to the entire biotic community, as the “The Land Ethic” by Aldo Leopold tells us to avoid damage to our ecosystems. Each living being has a role in an ecosystem; if one organism disappears, it affects the whole system.  With the snake’s experience, we see each element of this system as an integrated and complex community where the absence of any of its organisms would affect the whole ecosystem. It is necessary to have an ethical relationship with nature and as part of that community. Therefore, as members of the biotic community, we must extend our morality to the community. In the same way, as members of society, we have to respect other human beings as we have to respect and care for each biotic member community. In the story of the snake, the intrinsic value of each organism can be seen. Therefore, it has a moral value and fulfills a role within its ecological niche, and everything is connected. It teaches us that we have to treat each element of the ecosystem with value and respect, as we would treat each human with respect.

    Similarly, Basic Principles of Deep Ecology by Arne Naess and George Sessions would help us to avoid damage to nature because it gives a list of basic principles that views the system as whole, like Leopold, but also adds the non-living elements such as rivers, lakes, etc. This list of principles gives us philosophical thought and advice on improving natural resource treatment. The list shows that each living element and each non-living element has richness and diversity, and all have intrinsic value. Deep ecology remarks that the only way to reduce the biological community’s elements (richness and diversity) is if humans have vital needs, meaning absolutely necessary or essential not wanted. In this case, the gold course is not a vital necessity, and the impact it has on the snake and all the other living and non-living elements is a tragedy compared to the recreation that golf provides for humans. Besides, deep ecology establishes that overpopulation impacts the deterioration of nature and this impact is unsustainable on the natural ecosystem. This cannot be improved unless we change the economic and technological way in which we live. This can be done through public policies that protect these systems. If we recognize these principles and are aware of our actions’ consequences, maybe we can achieve some change to preserve the earth's ecosystem. We may not be able to save the snake who died on the gold course, but maybe we can protect the snakes to come. #RIPsnake