Question

Do we have a moral obligation to the non-human biotic network of life and inanimate matter? Sometimes, this vast network is called 'the environment'. Human influence upon the environment has been profound, in the last few thousand years, but particularly so in the last 300 years, with the start of the Industrial Revolution that has helped to make our species ubiquitous and dominant among the other species. One a small side-line species, now, human beings are 'king of the hill'. The price of this dominance is overdevelopment, pollution on an epic scale. As we survey our natural world and what our species has done to it, often for the worse, what moral obligation have we to change our manner and collective 'footprint' on the planet - and other planets, if we include our nascent space programs?

Answer 1

Yes, we do have a moral obligation to the non human species which has life. The environment consists of bacteria, fungi,virus, plants and many other animals. The human race over the past thousand years has expanded at such a rate that now there is a population explasion and we do not have enough place on earth to survive. This is why we are looking at inhabiting other planets like Mars. The indistrial revolution helped to a very large extent to increase our life span and quality of life. However, it also had a few disadvantages like increased population of the same species on the planet. This had led to a fight over resources like food, water, land etc. and resulted in thousands of people living below the poverty line. This pollution and over population has led to depletion of the ozone and melting of the north and south pole. It has also caused extinction of species who are important in the eco system. This has affected our life on earth too which is why we are looking to set up colonie son another planet.

Moving to another planet is not the solution. We will over populate Mars until a few more species become extinct and then move on to a third planet. This is not sustainable. We need to understand the importanct of natural resources and other species and try to decrease our carbon footprint so that we still have a chance at saving our planet.