In 2018, Hurricane Florence swept through North Carolina. The floods killed at least 59 humans and many animals, including at least 3.4 million farmed animals and an unknown number of wild animals. Since farmed animals live in captivity, they not only had no help from us but also had no way to help themselves. They were left alone as the waters rose, with predictable results.
More generally, changing weather conditions are causing animals to suffer and die all around the world. Aardvarks in the Kalahari are starving because of increasing drought. Black bears in the United States are unable to hibernate because warming temperatures are waking them up and preventing them from going to sleep. The Australian mosaic-tailed rat is now extinct because of rising sea levels. Countless aquatic animals are dying each year because of ocean acidification.
Human-caused climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of such events. As global average temperatures rise, we can expect rising sea levels, an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, flooding coastal areas, and regional conflicts over land, water and food. And while some animals will adapt, many will not. If we stay on this path, we will subject quintillions of animals over the next century to the ravages of disease, weather and ecosystem collapse.
Human activity harms animals in many other ways, too. We breed and kill at least 100 billion animals per year for food and at least 115 million per year for research. Fishing kills 1-3 trillion animals per year. Deforestation destroys animal habitats. Leaf blowers and light pollution kill insects. Building and vehicle collisions kill at least a billion animals per year. This year, more than 300 birds were injured or killed in collisions with a building in North Carolina in a single night.
These impacts raise the question: what do we – that is, humans in the global 1 per cent – owe animals in the context of human-caused ecological disaster? I think that the answer to this question is clear. If our actions are harming other animals, then we have a responsibility to try to reduce or repair these harms. Yet this will not be easy to do. It will take not only time, energy and money but also foundational social, political and economic change...
...Our history of intervening in complex systems confirms this fear. In general, humans are all too willing to interfere with systems that we barely understand to improve them according to our own standards. When we embark on such projects, our intentions might be good, but our impacts can still be bad, and can reveal a worrying degree of arrogance. We see this tendency in colonialist efforts to reshape some human communities to resemble others, often with disastrous results. We also see it in anthropocentric efforts to reshape nonhuman communities to resemble human communities, often with similarly disastrous results...
...Human-caused climate change is both a threat and an opportunity. It will systematically change the planet, exposing billions of humans and quintillions of nonhumans to a variety of risks and harms. At the same time, in showing us the limits of our current systems, it reveals the need for new systems – new ways of living together within and across nations, generations and species. As we create these systems, we have the chance to make the world a safer place for everyone involved. We should take it.
Jeff Sebo
