Endangered Animals Opinion Article

We must think ethically about the growing list of animals at risk of extinction

Extinction, as we know, is a very common and frequent phenomenon in nature. We have seen their traces in the fossil record that geography reveals to us: in very ancient times there were cataclysmic events that, by radically changing the environment, pushed towards the disappearance of a large percentage of the species that existed at a certain time. And we have also seen it happen, on a much smaller scale, in our days: numerous species have disappeared due to the effect of the dominant species on the planet, humanity.

There are plenty of cases to report, from the famous Dodo bird, extinct in the 17th century, to the northern white rhinoceros whose last male specimen died in Sudan in 2018. Early concerns about the impact of human ambition on population of the species arose in the middle of the 16th century, when it became evident that the continuous hunting of animals had led to the disappearance of the most valued species. But the first prohibitions and hunting reserves came in the 19th century, when there were already many endogenous species that in Europe had been driven to extinction: the European bison, the Eurasian horse and the European bull, for example.

The extinction of species at a global level has accelerated since then, since the damage caused by hunting and fishing is added to the damage caused by pollution and the destruction of habitats natural. The current rate of species disappearance is between 10 and 100 times higher in the last 150 years than in any other period of mass extinction in the geological past. Human beings are causing an impoverishment of the biodiversity planet and, if nothing changes soon, the extinct species may number in the millions.

What to do about it? How to think about this dilemma? Is it really our task to protect the life of other species or should we assume it as the darkest part of evolution? What is the ethical perspective that we should assume in this regard?

Behind the survival of the fittest

Millions of years ago, when the first photosynthetic cellular organisms arose, that is, when the photosynthesis, the atmosphere began to fill with a new element that had been scarce until then: oxygen. And so the Great Oxidation occurred, causing a mass extinction among living beings at the time. Until, one way or another, the first ones who knew how to breathe arose: take advantage of the new superabundant material to obtain energy.

This was a key event in the evolution of life, even though it came at a terrible cost: the extinction of thousands of entire species. But without it, the world as we know it could not exist. Therefore, should we be thankful for the extinction of those species? Doesn't the same thing happen with the extinction of 75% of existing life at the end of the Jurassic period, in that event that wiped out the dinosaurs and their large relatives?

Extinction, without a doubt, is an amoral event, something that just happens, but that brings with it unpredictable consequences. Especially when it comes to a radical change in the tree of life, as occurred in the examples previous ones, or like the one that we human beings are creating through our industrial activity and our way of of life. That is to say, extinction is the force that eliminates the least fit beings and opens space for the best adapted to come, since life, in one way or another, always seems to make its way.

So maybe the issue of the impoverishment of the biome world could be understood under that gaze, but not to shrug our shoulders and look elsewhere, but to understand the risks involved in forcing life to choose different paths. Can we predict the species of animals, vegetables, mushrooms or microorganisms that will manage to adapt to the plastic polluted world that we are creating? Are we capable of renouncing the biological, medical and physiological treasures that the disappearance of so many species brings with it? Let us not forget that we know only a percentage of the total existing species, but even those unknown species are suffering from our presence.

The risks of the world to come

From this perspective, the extinction of known species is not a dilemma only for them, destined to vanish from the face of the Earth, but for our own future generations, subjected to an adaptive pressure that we cannot predict. What pandemics will they have to face? What new dangerous species? Will humanity be able to adapt to the world we are creating?

We don't have the answer to those questions, but we do have enough. scientific knowledge to think about them, and the answer must therefore be the ethical core of our behavior. The extinction of animal species is immoral, among other things, because it reveals that the very world that gave rise to us, that is, the world in which we emerged as a species, is becoming another that is not necessarily compatible with our existence.

On the other hand, it may not seem like much to us that some species of insects disappear, but it is impossible to foresee the tail that will leave its emptiness. No doubt new species will take their place sooner or later, but we do not know which ones, nor do we know how they will respond to selective pressure, or how our relationships with they.

Therefore, the extinction of animals must be taken as a worrying symptom of a world that is disappearing and another, unknown, that is coming, and in which we may not have a secure place. After all, who guarantees us that we will be the fittest? And how long can we ignore this question?

References:

• "Opinion journalism" in Wikipedia.
• “Endangered Species” in Wikipedia.
• "12 animals that are in danger of extinction in 2021"in BBVA.
• “Endangered animals” in National Geographic.

What is an opinion piece?

A opinion piece is a type of journalistic writing, of common appearance in the written press, in which the points of view and considerations of an author are expressed signatory, who is usually an individual with authority on the matter or whose perspective is valued within the society.

Opinion articles are of a subjective, personal and argumentative nature, since in them the author seeks promote your point of view among readers, that is, convince them to interpret the reality of it manner.

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