Ethics in Conservation: Balancing Human Impact and Nature

When is it ethical to kill one thing to save another? Lethal intervention is a common practice in the field of wildlife management, especially when the survival of a species hangs in the balance

For as long as we’ve existed, human beings have employed killing as one of our primary responses to adversity. We seem to believe at some deep level that if we have a problem, killing the manifestation of that problem might just make it go away. This is the logic of political assassinations, revenge plots, and the endings of most Hollywood blockbusters. But when we actually apply this logic to the more-than-human world, what does it mean for the species and ecosystems we’re impacting? And what does it mean for us?

In this episode, we're facing this essential moral dilemma as we learn a way to navigate the tension between collective and individual well-being.

— — —

Find credits, a transcript, and citations at futureecologies.net/listen/fe-6-4-humane-being

Future Ecologies is completely independent and listener supported. Help us keep making this show, and get all the perks* at futureecologies.net/join

*including early episode releases, bonus content, discord access (now w/ book club), swag, your name on our website, and our eternal thanks