Why is it important to continue protecting blue whales with laws? What
would the problems be if the were to become extinct, and do the play an
important role to our environment, society, and economy?
thank you for your help - Kristen
Thank you for the challenging question. You put it right where it needs to
go, at the heart of the question of values. The scary thing is that we can
choose to value, or not value, anything we want, individually and as a
society. Those values have consequences, though, especially when it's about
how we regard and act toward the natural world, from whence we sprang. Or
maybe that's the question, did we spring from nature, or are we a
supernatural force, given this earth and all its creatures and answerable
to a higher power that can be interpreted in any way we want. I tend to
think we sprang from nature. That doesn't rule out a higher power, but it
means we'll never be closer to the higher power than when we're communing
with nature. So for that reason I have high respect for blue whales as
another expression of nature, incredibly mysterious and beyond our present
abilities to truly appreciate. To know if blue whales are good for our
environment, society or economy, we'd have to be sure we understand all the
forces of nature, to know what the consequences would be of wiping them
out, and we hardly have a clue. So I'm thinking that if we wipe out all the
blue whales, all future generations would have to just wonder what it was
like to have blue whales in the ocean, and they wouldn't have a chance to
understand them better. If we apply such a valuation to blue whales, then
other species of whales, and every other species or habitat that gets in
the way of building plans or produces short term revenues can be sacrificed
on the simple challenge to prove they are useful.
It's a question of values and morals, like we keep hearing the last
election was about. If the world decides to value the natural world and
wakes up to the rapid pace of desecration and degradation of the natural
world that is going on all over the planet, then we'll figure out how to
change our behavior and slow the crushing wave of humanity until the
healing can gain on the damage done. Your questions may be just a prod to
get a real answer, or they may be an expression of your values, but I think
they are questions that need to be addressed head-on, and the only answer
is, in a way, faith-based, because there is no way to prove that nature is
valuable, as is, and not after we're done exploiting all we can get and
wasting nature. It's not impossible that it could be too late already. It's
a global dilemma, and a complex one, so speaking up for whales, although it
doesn't address the thousands of other cuts nature is suffering at our
hands, seems like a no-brainer that anyone can understand. It can be a
start for a new ethic and value system. Come on aboard. If you start liking
whales, pretty soon you may be hugging trees.
Howard Garrett
Orca Network
Greenbank WA
(360) 678-3451
www.orcanetwork.org
howard@orcanetwork.org
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