“You say that viewed from your and many EA’s moral framework, nature has no value?”
No—Gemma said nature has no “intrinsic moral value”. There is a difference between intrinsic value and instrumental value. Intrinsic value is something that is valued for its own sake. Instrumental value is where something is valuable because it contributes to something else.
Nature clearly has instrumental value, i.e. “we care about environmental protection primarily because of its impact on sentient beings”.
But nature isn’t the only thing that has an impact on sentient beings. The question is how we should best use additional resources (e.g. time and money) to improve outcomes for sentient beings.
Spending more on protecting nature is obviously one option, but not the only one. If we spend more on nature, we have less to spend on human disease and animal welfare etc. So we need to consider all the options, and focus on where we can do the most good.
No—Gemma said nature has no “intrinsic moral value”. There is a difference between intrinsic value and instrumental value. Intrinsic value is something that is valued for its own sake. Instrumental value is where something is valuable because it contributes to something else.
Nature clearly has instrumental value, i.e. “we care about environmental protection primarily because of its impact on sentient beings”.
But nature isn’t the only thing that has an impact on sentient beings. The question is how we should best use additional resources (e.g. time and money) to improve outcomes for sentient beings.
Spending more on protecting nature is obviously one option, but not the only one. If we spend more on nature, we have less to spend on human disease and animal welfare etc. So we need to consider all the options, and focus on where we can do the most good.