I didn’t write the paper, but thank you for the comment, Prof. Ord! I appreciate your perspective.
I also personally am not sold on the biosphere having negative overall value. I think the immense number of sentient beings that spend large portions of their lives suffering makes it a real possibility, but I am not 100% sure that utilitarianism is true when it comes to balancing wild animal welfare and broader ecological health. I think that humanity needs to spend more effort figuring out what is ultimately of value, and because the ecological view has been dominant in environmental ethics to date, I believe the WAW view deserves more consideration and to be integrated into humanity’s thought process even if it is not ultimately accepted.
Yes, I completely agree. When I was exploring questions about wild animal welfare almost 20 years ago, I was very surprised to see how the idea of thinking about individual animals’ lives was so foreign to the field.
I didn’t write the paper, but thank you for the comment, Prof. Ord! I appreciate your perspective.
I also personally am not sold on the biosphere having negative overall value. I think the immense number of sentient beings that spend large portions of their lives suffering makes it a real possibility, but I am not 100% sure that utilitarianism is true when it comes to balancing wild animal welfare and broader ecological health. I think that humanity needs to spend more effort figuring out what is ultimately of value, and because the ecological view has been dominant in environmental ethics to date, I believe the WAW view deserves more consideration and to be integrated into humanity’s thought process even if it is not ultimately accepted.
Yes, I completely agree. When I was exploring questions about wild animal welfare almost 20 years ago, I was very surprised to see how the idea of thinking about individual animals’ lives was so foreign to the field.