Biodiversity is simply the assortment of living beings that exist on this planet. Since the dawn of man, biodiversity and the diversity of human culture have been completely intertwined. However, Shiva suggests that in this industrial age, these two things are breaking down together as well. In order to cut costs and improve the "bottom line," humans have found a way to skip over the biological resources and replaced them with synthetics and fossil fuels. However, all of these measures have taken a grave toll on the nature that has been exposed to them and the humans that find them ideally beneficial.
The author states that, with the millions of species existing on this planet (humans included), each should have the right to evolve freely. This means that we shouldn't push anything out of existence or use and manipulate any living being for our own personal profit or gain.
The importance that people put on capitalism causes an "ethical conflict between the intrinsic worth and the commercial value of all life forms." While I understand the concept as a whole, this is somewhat unrealistic. If you consider every possible form of biological manipulation, we would not even have modern day corn or many life saving medications that make life possible.
The thing that frightened me the most is that extinctions are occurring at 1,000x the natural rate. While mass extinctions have taken place throughout history, the most well known to be the dinosaurs, this was due to natural causes. Now, we are the cause of the decrease in biodiversity. We are the reason species are dropping off of the planet at an alarming rate and yet everyone is trying to find a reason that they are not at fault. Instead of changing our ways, everyone is standing around pointing the finger and unwilling to change. It is not until the powerful come together to end this rapid decline that things can begin to take a turn for the better.
The author states that, with the millions of species existing on this planet (humans included), each should have the right to evolve freely. This means that we shouldn't push anything out of existence or use and manipulate any living being for our own personal profit or gain.
The importance that people put on capitalism causes an "ethical conflict between the intrinsic worth and the commercial value of all life forms." While I understand the concept as a whole, this is somewhat unrealistic. If you consider every possible form of biological manipulation, we would not even have modern day corn or many life saving medications that make life possible.
The thing that frightened me the most is that extinctions are occurring at 1,000x the natural rate. While mass extinctions have taken place throughout history, the most well known to be the dinosaurs, this was due to natural causes. Now, we are the cause of the decrease in biodiversity. We are the reason species are dropping off of the planet at an alarming rate and yet everyone is trying to find a reason that they are not at fault. Instead of changing our ways, everyone is standing around pointing the finger and unwilling to change. It is not until the powerful come together to end this rapid decline that things can begin to take a turn for the better.
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