423
46.5 Ecologies of Suffering
The obvious realization of starvation in other beings so quantifies illimitably the
human conscience—already faltering beneath a rash of confused moral priorities
among its own kind—that there would appear nowhere to take this data and these
feelings. As cited in the informative Animal Ethics website, “Most animals in the
wild are at continuous risk of dying for a number of reasons. In fact, the vast majority of them die shortly after coming into existence, with their lives containing little
more than the pain of their deaths.”
23
That said, we submit intuitively that there is a
place to which Moses, Mahavira, Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Christ did go, in mind and
by the very personalized constructions of their ethical intentions and activism.
24
Ecologists and ethicists, and everyone else, might want to calculate a very basic
set of similitudes and reciprocities. They comprise the multiplication of numbers
that represent individuals, species, populations, genera, and every other taxonomic
category on whichever systematic Tree of Life or Chain of Being seems best fitted
to one’s imagination. All species experience some level of boom and bust (famine),
lemmings most notably. Recently, J. Jansen and R. Van Gorder applied new theoretical approaches to the mathematical ecology underlying the wide array of inputs
that manifest/pose as resources versus predators in any allegedly stable biological
system. Their predictive equations—building upon the work done since the time of
Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra in the 1920s (and later density-dependent VolterraRosenzweig- MacArthur theories) regarding predator-prey models—describe physical realities that are no different whether speaking of mosquitoes, trout, mountain
lions, rabbits, or humans.
25
We live in a biosphere that condones carnage at various
rates and fluctuations. It is worth repeating and reflecting upon the fact this all
implies many complications for the human conscience (needless to reiterate), and
no semblance of mathematical sobriety or predictability can soothe a psyche forever
wounded by this state of affairs.
Multiply the number of species by the number of individuals, then attempt to
divine the pain that exists in the world. It is as (mathematically) simple as that. It
necessarily equates, to take just one small example, the pain felt by insects in fields
23 See “Animal Ethics” – “Further Readings,” and the website’s section entitled, “Wild Animal
Suffering,”
https://www.animal-ethics.org/wild-animal-suffering-section/situation-of-animalswild/ as well as, “The Situation of Animals in the Wild,” https://www.animal-ethics.org/wild-animal-suffering-section/situation-of-animals-wild/.
mal-ethics.org/wild-animal-suffering-section/situation-of-animals-wild/malnutrition-thirst-wildanimals/. Accessed April 27, 2020.
25 Whitfield, J. Why cycling lemmings crash. Nature (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/news00060110, Published01 June 2000, DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/news000601-10, https://www.nature.
com/articles/news000601-10#citeas, Accessed April 28, 2020. See also, “Dynamics from a predator-prey-quarry-resource-scavenger model,” by Joanneke E. Jansen and Robert A. Van Gorder,
Theoretical Ecology 11, 19–38(2018), September 14, 2017, Springer Link, DOI, https://doi.
org/10.1007/s12080-017-0346-z, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12080-017-0346-z,
Accessed April 28, 2020.
46.5 Ecologies of Suffering
46.5 Ecologies of Suffering
The obvious realization of starvation in other beings so quantifies illimitably the
human conscience—already faltering beneath a rash of confused moral priorities
among its own kind—that there would appear nowhere to take this data and these
feelings. As cited in the informative Animal Ethics website, “Most animals in the
wild are at continuous risk of dying for a number of reasons. In fact, the vast majority of them die shortly after coming into existence, with their lives containing little
more than the pain of their deaths.”
23
That said, we submit intuitively that there is a
place to which Moses, Mahavira, Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Christ did go, in mind and
by the very personalized constructions of their ethical intentions and activism.
24
Ecologists and ethicists, and everyone else, might want to calculate a very basic
set of similitudes and reciprocities. They comprise the multiplication of numbers
that represent individuals, species, populations, genera, and every other taxonomic
category on whichever systematic Tree of Life or Chain of Being seems best fitted
to one’s imagination. All species experience some level of boom and bust (famine),
lemmings most notably. Recently, J. Jansen and R. Van Gorder applied new theoretical approaches to the mathematical ecology underlying the wide array of inputs
that manifest/pose as resources versus predators in any allegedly stable biological
system. Their predictive equations—building upon the work done since the time of
Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra in the 1920s (and later density-dependent VolterraRosenzweig- MacArthur theories) regarding predator-prey models—describe physical realities that are no different whether speaking of mosquitoes, trout, mountain
lions, rabbits, or humans.
25
We live in a biosphere that condones carnage at various
rates and fluctuations. It is worth repeating and reflecting upon the fact this all
implies many complications for the human conscience (needless to reiterate), and
no semblance of mathematical sobriety or predictability can soothe a psyche forever
wounded by this state of affairs.
Multiply the number of species by the number of individuals, then attempt to
divine the pain that exists in the world. It is as (mathematically) simple as that. It
necessarily equates, to take just one small example, the pain felt by insects in fields
23 See “Animal Ethics” – “Further Readings,” and the website’s section entitled, “Wild Animal
Suffering,”
https://www.animal-ethics.org/wild-animal-suffering-section/situation-of-animalswild/ as well as, “The Situation of Animals in the Wild,” https://www.animal-ethics.org/wild-animal-suffering-section/situation-of-animals-wild/.
mal-ethics.org/wild-animal-suffering-section/situation-of-animals-wild/malnutrition-thirst-wildanimals/. Accessed April 27, 2020.
25 Whitfield, J. Why cycling lemmings crash. Nature (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/news00060110, Published01 June 2000, DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/news000601-10, https://www.nature.
com/articles/news000601-10#citeas, Accessed April 28, 2020. See also, “Dynamics from a predator-prey-quarry-resource-scavenger model,” by Joanneke E. Jansen and Robert A. Van Gorder,
Theoretical Ecology 11, 19–38(2018), September 14, 2017, Springer Link, DOI, https://doi.
org/10.1007/s12080-017-0346-z, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12080-017-0346-z,
Accessed April 28, 2020.
46.5 Ecologies of Suffering