I had to admit that I lacked the necessary humility to second-guess myself regarding the mites. However, the incident ultimately produced an even stronger attitude of care towards nonhumans. Natural history, as Thomas Fleischner has argued, can do this. Continue reading Caring for carrion beetles
Here, I make a case for something that I call compassionate entomology, which is a way of studying insects and other arthropods that upholds the intrinsic value and welfare interests of the individual focal organisms. Continue reading Making a case for compassionate entomology
We need instead to cultivate the saving perception. This rests on the adoption of a non-reactionary sense of conservative gratitude for what we already have and what has come before us, including great artistic achievements. Continue reading Just Save Perception
When you have the privilege of quietly observing these cold-blooded miracles going about their lives—when you watch them exist—the need to find any other justification for their being starts to ebb away. Continue reading Love, existence, and the nature of picture postcards
Is nature sacred? If so in what way, and what difference does it make? Continue reading Ecocide – a religious (but non-Christian) view
On Friday 22nd April, an unusual ceremony took place in Winnipeg, Canada. Represented by its governor, the Hudson’s Bay Company gave its massive retail store in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, dating from 1881, to the Manitoba First Nations. Continue reading What change? Whose reconciliation?
It is obvious that humanity’s treatment of whale people constitutes an atrocity. This includes the deliberate murder of a so-called hunt, the quasi-deliberate murder of negligence, the effective murder of habitat destruction, or the oblivious murder of the unthinking. Continue reading Ecocentric thoughts on whaling
… on some of our walks, a sombreness falls cloak-like. These are the ones on which we pass the signs of a recent murder or evidence of a slaughter in progress. Continue reading Life and death in the suburbs
Earth Tongues 