There we are! ✔️ Album completed, embedded, shared, cross-linked, promoted... Next? Write the related articles: One about conservation volunteering project ethics, one about wildlife great apes tourism ethics. Pfuuu! busy!!!
Monday, May 22, 2017
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Etho Fact: Is 2nd Degree Knowledge Human Specific?
According to some, one of the human specificities is that we can access a 2nd degree type of knowledge -a belief about a belief. Only us have the ability to question the truthfulness of our beliefs.
Well, not really...
In our feverish quest to hold (and prove) the human exception, we dismiss once again the obvious: for instance an animal might be scared of a stuffed animal, then upon closer inspection changes its perception, and concludes that it is no danger. 2nd degree knowledge, or more generally meta-knowledge, can be observed (and is documented) in dogs, cats, apes, cetaceans, birds, fish... You name it.
The truth is that the field of ethology is on track with dismantling every single bit of our own belief that we are better then the estimated 8.7 millions other species, when we are only -and not uniquely- different.
Each day, it's becoming harder to justify the way humans view and treat the rest of the web of life.
Actively resisting the evidence and denying intentionally the right to live to other species for purposes that are non necessary to our survival might be uniquely human though...
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Eco Fact: The Environmental Cost of War
Little fact of the day: The total carbon emissions of the world’s combined military forces is probably on the order of 140 million tons, nearly equal to the annual emissions of the United Kingdom.
Actually, the world’s armed forces, according to environmental analyst Ruth Leger Sivard, “are the single largest polluter on Earth.” A Canadian Peace Report study found that today’s armed forces are responsible for 10 to 30 per cent of global environmental damage, 6 to 10 per cent of worldwide air pollution, and 20 per cent of all ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbon use.
Now considering the size of our own huuuge army -biggly bigger than any other army in the world- and considering the budget this 'American carnage' leadership has vowed to dedicate to it, then...
Ref: Ecocide: A Short History of the Mass Extinction of Species by Franz Broswimmer (2002)
Monday, May 15, 2017
785 (birds) and Counting...
Just back from Belize where I got to refine & practice good species and habitat specific wildlife ethics.
π¦ During those few days, we sighted some 98 species of birds, 34 of which being new sightings for us: very gratifying! 
π
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