Opening page…
Does nature matter for its own sake?
Picture a forest that vanishes without a single person or animal ever noticing or suffering.
Your answer
A little context
Coming down from a hike, you pass a patch of wildflowers nobody else will see before they wilt, and you leave them standing. Or you read that a glacier in a country you will never visit has melted away, and feel a small, real grief with nowhere to put it. Nobody you know was hurt. So who, exactly, was the loss for?
Nearby questions
- Is it wrong to eat animals?The animal on your plate could feel pain and fear. If you had to kill it yourself, you would find out what you really think.
- Can a deal be unfair if both sides agree to it?A desperate person accepts poverty wages, or sells a kidney, because every other option is worse. They chose it, and it may still be exploitation.
- The coin flipTwo drivers leave the same party equally drunk. A child runs into the road in front of one, who kills the child; the other gets home without hurting anyone. Do they deserve different blame?
- Do the ends justify the means?Sometimes the only way to stop something terrible is to do something terrible yourself. Even then, your hands are not quite clean.
- Do we owe anything to people who aren't born yet?The people who will live with our climate, our debts and our ruins cannot vote, bargain or thank anyone.
