Endings

Now that my Philosophy and the Environment course is over, it may be time to shut this blog down. Few people visited here regularly, and even fewer are likely to do so from now on. That's the reason I didn't post on the Bali conference, which in any case was probably more too little, too late to save the planet -- or, at least, to save human civilization. There will of course be a huge upside to the coming catastrophe. Certainly pigs and bees will be better off once we're gone. Worst-case scenario: a few bands of savages will survive in the ruins, to start the whole mess over again. Best-case scenario: Gerda kisses the reindeer.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

What do I think?

I've been asked where I stand on the issue(s) of animal rights and environmental ethics. Those interested can consult my essay "Animal Rights and Human Needs", Environmental Ethics 18 (1996): 249-264 -- or can request a pdf version by e-mailing me at amt [at] uvic.ca .

Final exam

The final exam in Philosophy and the Environment is scheduled for Monday, December 17 at 9 a.m. in the university Gymnasium. The exam is worth 40% of the course grade. Students will have to answer, without notes, any two of the following three questions:

(1) Is animal liberation, whether in its utilitarian or rights form, compatible with an ethical concern for ecological wholes (such as species or ecosystems)?

(2) Is a feminist perspective required for an adequate environmental ethic?

(3) Is capitalism ecologically sustainable?

In each case the topic is to be discussed with reference to some of the arguments covered in the course; you are to support your position with cogent reasons, and consider, and reply to, one or more significant objections to your position.

William Morris

William Morris (1834-1896) was a poet, novelist, designer, and a founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, to which the Maltwood Gallery at the University of Victoria has a historical tie. In his later years Morris became a committed political activist. Although influenced by Karl Marx, whose daughter Eleanor was a colleague of his in the Socialist League, Morris's unique vision of a post-industrial future reflected his concern for preserving a flourishing natural environment. He articulated his view of the intimate connections among art, work, and nature in essays and lectures, and in his utopian novel, News from Nowhere.

Eat your words

A friend pointed me to this website where you can have fun improving your vocabulary and feed the hungry at the same time.

Intelligence quotient

In my opinion Intelligence is the best series on television. It's a complex, gripping, and ongoing story with multiple plot lines and believable characters of varying shades of grey -- and it's set in Vancouver. The last two episodes of the season will air back-to-back on Monday, December 10 beginning at 8 p.m. It's like the electric car: people who know about it love it, but higher powers may be trying to kill it. Spread the word.

Chimps outperform university students

Given their superior memory skills, I wonder whether chimpanzees would do better at recalling the details of the land ethic. And anyone familiar with John Locke's theory of personal identity must wonder whether this means that individual chimpanzees actually exist over time more consistently than humans do.

Philosophy for kids

The multi-talented Tiffany Poirier, who not so long ago was a philosophy student at the University of Victoria, has a piece in The Tyee on the benefits of teaching philosophy to children. Her book, Q Is for Question: A Philosophy ABC, is due out in 2008.

You bet your life!

What's the worst that could happen?

Burj Dubai

This monster is already taller than the CN Tower and it's still growing. With the planet reeling from human excess, the rich are competing to put the peak into Peak Oil. When the crash comes, they may be piqued.

Australia votes for change

The government of John Howard, a close ally of U.S. president Bush, has been swept from office in the Australian general election. The new prime minister will be Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd, who has pledged to sign the Kyoto Treaty and withdraw Australian combat troops from Iraq.

Meanwhile, at a Commonwealth summit in Uganda, Canada has blocked a call for binding targets for greenhouse-gas emissions by developed nations. Canada objected to the fact that other nations, particularly India, would have been exempt.

Sick

They're just animals.

Japan plans whale massacre

A Japanese whaling fleet plans to kill a thousand whales, including 50 humpbacks, in the South Pacific. Japan kills whales under the pretence of conducting scientific research. Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand says the Japanese should stay home.

1844

Victoria, in the seventh year of her reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, turned 25 – on May 24, of course.

At his home in Kent, Charles Darwin was writing a draft essay on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had not yet revealed to anyone.

Across the ocean, Abraham Lincoln, a successful lawyer with a young family, who had been born on the same day in 1809 as Darwin, bought a house in Springfield, Illinois.

To the east, on the other side of the Great Lakes, a promising young lawyer, John A. Macdonald, was elected to represent the town of Kingston in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada.

In the Red River Settlement, near modern-day Winnipeg, Louis Riel was born.

In Prussia, near Leipzig, Friedrich Nietzsche was born.

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, published Rambles in Germany and Italy, a two-volume work of travel writing.

In Paris, a radical young journalist named Karl Marx was writing what became known as his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. “The sun is the object of the plant – ”, he wrote, “an indispensable object to it, confirming its life – just as the plant is an object for the sun, being an expression of the life-awakening power of the sun, of the sun’s objective essential power.”

J. M. W. Turner’s paintings were filled with the sun’s light. His 1844 work Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway celebrates the fusion of technology and nature, and the headlong rush into the future.

Doomsday vault

In what should only be a science-fiction scenario but unfortunately isn't, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, backed by the Norwegian government and the Gates Foundation, has constructed a "doomsday vault" on an island in the Svalbard archipelago, not far from the North Pole. The vault will be used to store frozen seeds from about 1.5 million types of crops, in case of natural and/or human-made disasters, including climate change, that may threaten the world's food resources. Where will you get your food on Doomsday?

What's the poop?

For decades debate has raged (or stewed) over what kind of sewage treatment the Victoria area needs. On the one side are those, including Mr. Floatie and the Georgia Strait Alliance, who say Victoria is an environmental delinquent and that it is disgraceful that the capital district continues to pump its raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. On the other side are the sceptics, including former local M.P. and federal Minister of the Environment David Anderson, who believe that building treatment plants could be a massive waste of money. For example, the association Responsible Sewage Treatment Victoria argues that "the most appropriate and responsible sewage treatment method for Victoria is the existing natural treatment system (NTS) with improved source controls and infrastructure upgrading." A letter with 92 signatures, published in the Times-Colonist on November 1, included the following:

The evidence indicates that the worst problem with the existing liquid waste disposal system is the continued failure to address storm drain overflows. Last January, for example, heavy rains resulted in raw unscreened sewage being discharged from storm drain outfalls along the coastline over 40 times.

The Ministry of Environment has mandated sewage treatment, at an estimated cost of $1.1 billion dollars. Yet the currently recommended plan submitted to the Minister would not fix the storm drain problem. Nor would it enhance the already exemplary source control program (which stops many toxic chemicals from ever going down the drain). The proposed treatment expenditure is huge: $1.1 billion is equivalent to $500-700 per year, per average household, in the core area for the next 50 years. The cost is similar to the annual cost per Victoria household of the entire City of Victoria Police Department.

Evidence-based policy requires evidence. Open government requires that citizens be informed. With these requirements in mind, we assert that the Ministry of Environment has a duty to commission and publish an independent, objective, cost-benefit study of the proposed land-based treatment option.

Accept no substitutes

Technological optimists like Julian Simon and Jan Narveson have argued that there are no real shortages of natural resources, since recycling, more efficient use, and the substitution of new materials and energy sources for old ones will provide us with the services we desire. James Howard Kunstler isn't buying that line. As a result, he foresees society undergoing radical changes in the coming decades.

Project Tiger

The National Tiger Conservation Authority, former Project Tiger, reports a serious decline in India's tiger population. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has responded by approving the creation of a "tiger protection force".

The majority of tigers that disappear in India - and other countries - are killed either by poachers supplying body parts to the lucrative traditional Chinese medicine market or by farmers and villagers who have to compete with the tigers for the same habitat.

The report also recommended speeding up the relocation of villages from within tiger reserves, filling empty park ranger posts and laying out "eco-tourism" guidelines to benefit local populations.

More profitable stupidity

Who would've thunk it? Indonesia is one of the world's leading producers of greenhouse gases, thanks to the deliberate destruction of its peatlands in order to produce palm oil. Big Western companies are up to their necks in the business, of course, and we're all implicated.

1917 + 90

It's ninety years since the Russian Revolution, an event that shook the world.