Today's discussions were very interesting. I enjoyed getting to hear about some topics that had not been overly discussed yet. My was very interested in the paper on an anthropocentric view of factory farming. The points that were made were very pertinent and I really liked being given alternate reasons for wanting an end to factory farming besides the animal-rights issue. I think that, unfortunately, these types of human-centered arguments are the ones that have the most chance of reaching people on a large scale.
I also enjoyed hearing the panelists talk about the GAIA hypothesis and the Land Ethic. Those were two topics in the book that I thought were interesting, and I thought the panelists did a good job of presenting their ideas.
Lastly: the topics that were focused on deep ecology. The paper about controlling the population and letting nature behave the way it was meant to really stirred up some heated discussions. I thought this topic was very interesting because it is not a topic I'm used to hearing about - and I'm certainly not used to hearing the point of view that was presented. Although I have to disagree with the idea of limiting family sizes and not treating the sick, I think the panelist did a good job of helping me to understand why someone would adopt this point of view. Rationally, it makes sense to say we should let survival of the fittest play out, but ethically I believe it would be wrong. Now that we have the ability to help people through medications and other forms of aid, I think that refusing anyone that help would be amoral. However, I can see why someone would say otherwise, and I think the argument was presented in a way that made it more clear to me, no matter what my own opinions are.
Overall, I think everyone did a great job with their panel presentations and with responding to some tough questions.
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