Speciesism in Biology and Culture : How Human Exceptionalism Is Pushing Planetary Boundaries

This open access book explores a wide-ranging discussion about the sociopolitical, cultural, and scientific ramifications of speciesism and world views that derive from it. In this light, it integrates subjects across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The 21st-century western world is anthropocentric to an extreme; we adopt unreasonably self-centered and self-serving ideas and lifestyles. Americans consume more energy resources per person than most other nations on Earth and have little concept of how human ecology and population biology interface with global sustainability. We draw upon religion, popular culture, politics, and technology to justify our views and actions, yet remain self-centered because our considerations rarely extend beyond our immediate interests. Stepping upward on the hierarchy from “racism,” “speciesism” likewise refers to the view that unique natural kinds (species) exist and are an important structural element of biodiversity. This ideology manifests in the cultural idea that humans are distinct from and intrinsically superior to other forms of life. It further carries a plurality of implications for how we perceive ourselves in relation to nature, how we view Judeo-Christian religions and their tenets, how we respond to scientific data about social problems such as climate change, and how willing we are to change our actions in the face of evidence. Foreword Preface Contents Editors and Contributors Part I Biology and Culture 1 Speciesism, Science, and Society 1.1 What is Speciesism? 1.1.1 Speciesism: Evolutionary and Ecological Thinking 1.1.2 The Scientific Problems with Speciesism 1.2 A Sawyer Seminar Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 1.3 Major Topics Related to Speciesism Covered in This Book 1.3.1 Race and Human Genomic Variation, Rasmus Winther 1.3.2 Science Without Species, Nicholas J. Matzke 1.3.3 Islands as Microcosms of Human Impact, Scott M. Fitzpatrick 1.3.4 Species, God, and Dominion, John S. Wilkins 1.3.5 Symbols and How We Came to Be Human, Mark W. Moffett 1.3.6 Human, Non-Human, and Ecosystem Rights, Gary Steiner and Marc Lucht 1.3.7 A Phylogenetic Approach to Conservation: Michael F. Allen and Brent D. Mishler 1.3.8 Energy and Society: Toward a Sustainable Future, Saul Griffith 1.4 Other Topics Related to Speciesism 1.4.1 Species, the Arbitrary Constructs of Biodiversity 1.4.2 Human Population 1.4.3 Public Health and Medical Implications 1.4.4 Food: Nutrition, Energy, Climate, and Biotechnology 1.5 Closing Remarks References 2 Race and Human Genomic Variation 2.1 A Thought Experiment 2.2 Relatively Little Homo Sapiens Intraspecies Genomic Variation 2.3 Out of Africa Migrations 2.3.1 Of All Continental Regions, African Genomic Variation is the Richest and Most Encompassing 2.3.2 Genomic Heterozygosity of Populations Decreases with Increasing Distance from Africa, Along Human Migration Routes 2.3.3 Two Groundbreaking Episodes 2.4 Is Race Biologically Real? 2.5 Philosophy and Post-Racial Futures 2.6 Coda: Who Are We? References 3 Science Without Species: Doing Science with Tree-Thinking 3.1 From Comparative Methods to Phylogenetic Comparative Methods 3.2 Biodiversity in Space: Spatial Phylogenetics 3.3 Studying Biodiversity in Time: The Challenges Imposed by Ranks 3.3.1 A Rank-Free Suggestion for Studying Biodiversity in Time 3.4 More Science Without Species 3.4.1 Gene Trees 3.4.2 Virus Trees 3.5 Conclusion References Part II Culture and History 4 ‘Detritus of a Coming World’: The Colonization of Islands as Microcosms for Human Impacts on an Interplanetary Scale 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Pacific Diaspora 4.3 Islands as Model Systems 4.4 Islands as Microcosms of Human Destruction 4.5 The Colonization of Other Worlds 4.6 Transported Landscapes on an Interstellar Scale 4.7 Lessons for the Future? References 5 Species, God, and Dominion 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Species: Why Do They Matter to Religion? 5.3 The Problem of Kinds on the Ark 5.4 The Invention of [Biological] Species 5.5 Setting the Baseline 5.6 The Evangelical Backlash Against Ecology 5.6.1 Dominionism and Dominion Theology 5.7 We Don’t Need Species Anyway 5.8 Ramifications and Conclusions References 6 Symbols and How We Came to Be Human 6.1 Introduction 6.2 “Marking” Our Affiliations 6.3 Making Sense of Our Actions 6.4 “Belonging” Isn’t About Knowledge 6.5 The Prehistory of Symbols—With a Warning 6.6 The Origins of Markers and, Eventually, Symbols 6.7 The Human Relationship to Symbols References Part III Conservation and Law 7 Law and Nature: Human, Non-human, and Ecosystem Rights 7.1 The Idea of Rights for Non-human Beings 7.2 Animal Rights 7.2.1 The Problem of Speciesism 7.2.2 The Historical Roots of Contemporary Speciesism 7.2.3 Contemporary Defenses of Speciesism 7.2.4 How to Address the Problem of Speciesistic Prejudice 7.3 Ecosystem Rights 7.3.1 On the Possibility of Ecosystem Rights 7.3.2 Animal Rights and Ecosystem Rights 7.4 Toward a Non-anthropocentric Relation to Nature References 8 A Phylogenetic Approach to Conservation: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning for a Changing Globe 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Twentieth Century Approach and Recognition of Biodiversity 8.3 Emerging Issues at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century 8.4 The Reasons to Shift to a Multiple Species Approach 8.4.1 Lack of Distributional Knowledge 8.4.2 Political Constraints 8.4.3 Dynamic Distributions 8.4.4 Corridors: Environmental Change, Variability, and Disease 8.5 Advantages of a Multiple Species Planning Process 8.5.1 Protecting Biodiversity Broadly Provides Multiple Ecosystem Services 8.5.2 Ecologically Effective Planning Incorporates Climate Change and Migration 8.6 A Phylogenetic Approach to Biodiversity 8.6.1 Phylogenetic Metrics of Biodiversity 8.6.2 Statistical Tests 8.6.3 Prioritizing Areas for Conservation 8.6.4 Adding Microbes to the Mix 8.7 Synthesis and Summary: Integrating Evolutionary and Ecological Processes References Part IV Sustainability and the Future 9 Energy and Society: Toward a Sustainable Future 9.1 Introduction 9.2 History 9.3 On Fossil Fueling Our Species 9.4 Energy System Trade-Offs 9.5 Predicting the Future 9.6 How Much Energy Do We Need? 9.7 Where Will All Our Energy Come From? 9.8 The Impacts of Our Energy Options on Biodiversity 9.8.1 How Much Land Will We Need to Use? 9.8.2 Nuclear 9.9 Conclusion: Thinking Globally References