Part 4 – Worldviews

Where do my environmental ethics lie? Ecocentrism focuses on the health of entire systems. There is only one planet Earth and I believe we need to find ways for all  species to live in harmony as well as protect the ecosystems that house each species. I debated which term to use and decided on  “harmony” over “together”. For humans to have the sense of safety and security they desire and animals/plants to have the habitat and space they need, we need to exist in parallel (with some separation). I am not naïve to the fact this will take a great shift in current mind sets and the current practices in place, I just believe a lot of things need to change, some rather drastically, as we are running out of time to act. 

 The issue separating ecocentrism from biocentrism that really solidified my choice was the issue of invasive species – don’t get me wrong, I have also killed a mosquito and spider or two. If all life is equal, there are minimal options when it comes to dealing with invasive species in an ecosystem. Invasive species are by definition invaders that have tremendous impacts on the ecosystems they are introduced to. Failure to intervene will lead to great loss of ecosystems, habitats and the species that inhabit those places. With the mass extinction we are already facing, is this something that we can afford? Species cannot be protected and thrive if they have no home, this is why I believe the only way to move sustainably into the future is  ecocentrism.

Whatever a person’s motivation is to make environmentally sound decisions is really irrelevant to me, as long as we recognize this is a group effort and that we need to do better before it is too late for all of us.