This post is persuasive overall and caused me to update negatively on the debate motion.
I don’t think this is load-bearing but this sentence:
However, it is not the number of animals that matters here, but the scale of humans’ impact on them.
I’m not certain about this distinction. Humans increasing or decreasing the number might be the largest impact, and at the same time, this seems to me to imply a greater concern for anthropogenic harm than non-anthropogenic harm. Is that what you meant?
this seems to me to imply a greater concern for anthropogenic harm than non-anthropogenic harm. Is that what you meant?
Oh no sorry, increased WAW welfare compared to the “natural” situation counts as impact too.
What I’m saying is: say you help 1 million wild animals out of many or 1 million farmed animals out of fewer. You can’t say the former is better because there are more wild animals. It doesn’t matter how many there are. What matters is how many you help and how much. And there is an asymmetry here where farmed animals are probably 100% helped if humans are disempowered—the problem is totally fixed—whereas, even in the best case scenario, empowered humans will be nowhere near totally fixing wild animal suffering. This asymmetry may compensate for the fact that there are many more wild animals to help.
Humans increasing or decreasing the number might be the largest impact
As in (D) is more plausible than (C) (in my typology)? I’d agree. Anyway, my argument holds independently of what people find more likely between (C) and (D).
This post is persuasive overall and caused me to update negatively on the debate motion.
I don’t think this is load-bearing but this sentence:
I’m not certain about this distinction. Humans increasing or decreasing the number might be the largest impact, and at the same time, this seems to me to imply a greater concern for anthropogenic harm than non-anthropogenic harm. Is that what you meant?
Oh no sorry, increased WAW welfare compared to the “natural” situation counts as impact too.
What I’m saying is: say you help 1 million wild animals out of many or 1 million farmed animals out of fewer. You can’t say the former is better because there are more wild animals. It doesn’t matter how many there are. What matters is how many you help and how much. And there is an asymmetry here where farmed animals are probably 100% helped if humans are disempowered—the problem is totally fixed—whereas, even in the best case scenario, empowered humans will be nowhere near totally fixing wild animal suffering. This asymmetry may compensate for the fact that there are many more wild animals to help.
As in (D) is more plausible than (C) (in my typology)? I’d agree. Anyway, my argument holds independently of what people find more likely between (C) and (D).