distinction between human and non-human and developed
the concept that the non-human world exists for human
exploitation. This is expressed in religious and other cultural
institutions in our society, which justify and defend human
exploitation as a divine or legal right. However, we are at
the point now where this cultural assumption is
dysfunctional. In exploiting the world for our "benefit," we
are destroying natural systems that support all living things.
Our basic assumption that the world is created for our
benefit and ours alone, that our economic values are the
only values with merit, that we can exploit resources to
exhaustion with impunity, is proving to be a highly
destructive and ultimately counterproductive philosophy. If
we are to continue into the future as a functional society,
or even as a viable species, we must find some way to alter
this basic relationship among humans and all other aspects
of the non-human world.
next
MOTHER NATURE ALWAYS
BATS LAST.
Long Live the Weeds and the Wilderness."