Thursday, January 15, 2009
Penguins Matter
I was intrigued by the discussion of William Baxter's argument in his essay "People or Penguins." Having not read the essay (I could only find outlines online) I cannot argue against it clearly, but from what was said in class I believe Baxter is not considering the importance of ecological dependence of all species. I believe that Baxter represents Erazim Kohak's theory that greed has become a virtue. By this i mean that Baxter is placing more importance over the individual and that individual's species than the ecological world. This is greed because when the individual cares only for her own desires and welfare then she does not understand that limits are necessary. Limits are necessary because it allows for the coexistence of all living organisms. This coexistence allows humans to live the way they do. For example consider the in class example of honeybees, honeybees allow the pollination of trees, flowers, and other plants that are needed to help convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. This very process is what allows humans to live on earth. This is further exemplified in the movie, Bee Movie. When the bees are forced to go industrial to produce more honey for big business they no longer are able to pollinate the plants. This leads to the destruction of all plant life. The movie helps give a visual example of the dangers of not coexisting with all living organisms. The movie illustrates that all organisms are interconnected and the importance even a small insect has on the world. The movie also illustrates that Baxter's argument, where he believes humans should not care about penguin, is incorrect. While the penguins do not help pollinate plants, their existence allows humans to see that the envierment is in good form. The destruction of one ecosystem will destroy other world ecosystems because their existence allows balance on earth. Thus, when the penguins go extinct, who is to say that humans will not quickly follow because all of the world's ecosystems are inter-connected.
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I definitely agree with your point that everything on Earth is intimately connected in many ways that might not be readily recognized. I think that's perhaps why humans do so many stupid things with respect to the health of our ecosystems. We may wish sometimes that all misquitoes would drop off of the face of the earth, but the consequences of such a phenomenon could be drastic. One need only tug on one small part of nature to find that it is connected to everything else.
ReplyDeleteI agree that everything on Earth is intertwined and that humans do not realize that their actions effect the health of our ecosystem. I think that this is partially because we are selfish individuals. I guess you can say that I agree with the statement that we are greedy. We want what we want, when we want it, not matter how it affects others, including the world we live in. You see this in our economy now. We are in the financial state that we are in now because everyone wanted 'stuff' even though they did not have the money to pay for it. Now people are beginning to realize the effects of their actions because they feel them negatively. Unfortunately, I think it is going to take an 'ecological crisis' for people to realize that the way we live now is extremely harmful to the living world around us.
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