On the Value of Other Species
The word ‘progress’ implies positive improvement of circumstances. It is often applied
to the development of human infrastructure. The development of human infrastructure
usually takes place at the cost of the natural environment – more specifically for the
purposes of this essay – natural vegetation. The use of the word ‘progress’ for such
infrastructure development suggests that the natural vegetation lost is of negligible value.
One can see the consequences of this view in the reduction of natural vegetation over
time in aerial photographs. But… the value and potential value of natural vegetation is
not well known. How then is it possible to call infrastructure development progress when
it is impossible to say what the value of the lost vegetation is?
Among the benefits of the natural environment are ecosystem services such as clean air,
climate control, clean water, food, recycling and waste disposal (Miller 2002). Food is
now mostly produced in unnatural environments but even in these unnatural
environments, the other ecosystem services are relied on.
Natural vegetation may be referred to as bush. Bush is frequently considered as ‘wasted’
land. This attitude is reflected by municipal workers’ desire to mow down natural
vegetation (pers. obs.) and by the administration of University of the Western Cape
(UWC) in the decision to build on the ‘dogleg’ of natural vegetation on the UWC
campus.
One of the best descriptions of the risk of destroying other species (which would also
apply to natural vegetation) is given by Sheri S. Tepper in her fantasy novel ‘The
Companions’. The story is set in a hypothetical future in which humans have developed
space travel and met other intelligent races. The section quoted is a conversion between
two humans who are working for an older, more knowledgeable race (the Phain) after
being selected from the slaves of a neighbouring race (the Simusi). The selected humans
were questioned for a long time before starting work and the newcomer (Jewel) asked
what they had been questioned about. “A man spoke. ‘They got me on a colony planet,
they showed us a picture of this thing, and they asked how long we’d studied this kind of
half animal half plant thing they called a fromfis. I told them we hadn’t studied the
things at all, we weren’t supposed to, we were there to do research on a cure for BanAtkins Disease. So then this Phain told me this fromfis thing had a microbe growing in
its gut that would have cured the Ban-Atkins Disease, so it was a pity we’d killed them
all, and that really upset me. Maybe they were just jerking us around.” “No,” I (Jewel)
said firmly. “The Phain don’t do that. If a Phain said that, it was the truth.”’ The above
quote illustrates 2 issues. Firstly, the danger of regarding as worthless things about which
little is known and secondly, the need for research without reference to a particular
application since research directed at an application is limited in scope.
In this day and age, monetary value is the primary value assigned to most objects and
activities - the bottom-line. Mostly, this greed for money considers short term gain above
sustainability. The bottom-line regarding the natural environment, is that humanity will
all eventually pay for the greed that has eliminated much of our natural environment.
Unfortunately, the payment will come from the generations beyond the perpetrators.
References
Miller, G.T. (2002) Living in the environment, twelfth edition. Thomson Learning,
Australia, p. 99. 0-534-37697-5 ISBN
Tepper, S.S. (2003) The companions. Gollancz, London, p 364. 0-575-07628-3 ISBN