575
and biological discussion focusing upon animal rights that encompassed such
writers (all cited by Lockwood) as S.R.L. Clark, The Moral Status of Animals
(1977), D. R. Griffin, The Question of Animal Awareness (1976), A. Jolly, A New
Science That Sees Animals as Conscious Beings (1985), J. Rawls, A Theory of
Justice (1971), T. Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (1983), and P. Singer,
Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (1975). But in
spite of the vast number of insects and spiders destroyed during the Green
Revolution, with its global celebration of chemical adulterants,
15
there was little
attention paid to big moral questions as applied to the smallest among us. To find
such serious and breathtaking deliberations, one would have to look back to the
Jain and Buddhist annals, to Mahavira (ca. 497–425 BCE) and his disciples most
notably.
16
And today, insects and spiders are going extinct in multitudes. Whole populations are disappearing in a day, a consequence of human behavior that, at least
with such apex pollinators as bees, many are hearing the clarion call. An appreciation of the eco-dynamics occurring among bacteria and viruses is far more
esoteric, for the majority of us. Until our bodies suddenly tell us that something
has gone terribly awry. And as we now collectively engage in “war” against the
latest disease calamity in nearly every human community, the many revelations
concerning zoonoses have not yet fully entered the ethicist’s lexicon, perhaps
because the contemplation of saving mosquitoes or cockroaches, locust or fleas is
unlikely to ever gain much philosophical traction. Not as long as we remain the
dominant vertebrate species on earth. Dr. Paul Ehrlich and I discussed this, in
various guises, with respect to Lepidoptera (the nearly 180,000 known species of
butterflies and moths of which Paul is one of the world’s leading authorities) in
our book Hope on Earth: A Conversation,
17
especially in light of the 0.92%
decrease annually of flying insects. The fact that Cubans, Chinese, and others
keep crickets as pets, and that the Chinese turn cockroaches into a cream thought
to combat gastroenteritis (and some Russians and Germans are known to have
cockroach races), has not yet engendered a generalized love affair between most
humans and insects (Fig. 60.5).
15 See, for example, “The Toxic Consequences of the Green Revolution,” by Daniel Pepper, US
New and World Report, July 7, 2008, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2008/07/07/
the-toxic-consequences-of-the-green-revolution; See also the vast scientific commentary on the
writings of Rachel Carson, https://www.rachelcarson.org/Bio.aspx.
16 See Life Force: The World of Jainism, by M. C. Tobias, Asian Humanities Press, Fremont,
California 1991. For other invertebrate-related issues of biosemiosis, legal codes, and historical
anecdote – from ants and tarantulas to studies of endangered co-dependent insect/spider species
issues – see God’s Country: The New Zealand Factor, by M. C. Tobias and J. G. Morrison, A
Dancing Star Foundation Book, Zorba Press, Ithaca, New York, 2011, pp. 175–177.
17 University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., 2014. See also, John L. Capinera, “Butterflies and
moths”. Encyclopedia of Entomology. 4 (2nd ed.). Springer, New York, 2008, pp. 626–672.
60.2 Wet Markets
and biological discussion focusing upon animal rights that encompassed such
writers (all cited by Lockwood) as S.R.L. Clark, The Moral Status of Animals
(1977), D. R. Griffin, The Question of Animal Awareness (1976), A. Jolly, A New
Science That Sees Animals as Conscious Beings (1985), J. Rawls, A Theory of
Justice (1971), T. Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (1983), and P. Singer,
Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (1975). But in
spite of the vast number of insects and spiders destroyed during the Green
Revolution, with its global celebration of chemical adulterants,
15
there was little
attention paid to big moral questions as applied to the smallest among us. To find
such serious and breathtaking deliberations, one would have to look back to the
Jain and Buddhist annals, to Mahavira (ca. 497–425 BCE) and his disciples most
notably.
16
And today, insects and spiders are going extinct in multitudes. Whole populations are disappearing in a day, a consequence of human behavior that, at least
with such apex pollinators as bees, many are hearing the clarion call. An appreciation of the eco-dynamics occurring among bacteria and viruses is far more
esoteric, for the majority of us. Until our bodies suddenly tell us that something
has gone terribly awry. And as we now collectively engage in “war” against the
latest disease calamity in nearly every human community, the many revelations
concerning zoonoses have not yet fully entered the ethicist’s lexicon, perhaps
because the contemplation of saving mosquitoes or cockroaches, locust or fleas is
unlikely to ever gain much philosophical traction. Not as long as we remain the
dominant vertebrate species on earth. Dr. Paul Ehrlich and I discussed this, in
various guises, with respect to Lepidoptera (the nearly 180,000 known species of
butterflies and moths of which Paul is one of the world’s leading authorities) in
our book Hope on Earth: A Conversation,
17
especially in light of the 0.92%
decrease annually of flying insects. The fact that Cubans, Chinese, and others
keep crickets as pets, and that the Chinese turn cockroaches into a cream thought
to combat gastroenteritis (and some Russians and Germans are known to have
cockroach races), has not yet engendered a generalized love affair between most
humans and insects (Fig. 60.5).
15 See, for example, “The Toxic Consequences of the Green Revolution,” by Daniel Pepper, US
New and World Report, July 7, 2008, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2008/07/07/
the-toxic-consequences-of-the-green-revolution; See also the vast scientific commentary on the
writings of Rachel Carson, https://www.rachelcarson.org/Bio.aspx.
16 See Life Force: The World of Jainism, by M. C. Tobias, Asian Humanities Press, Fremont,
California 1991. For other invertebrate-related issues of biosemiosis, legal codes, and historical
anecdote – from ants and tarantulas to studies of endangered co-dependent insect/spider species
issues – see God’s Country: The New Zealand Factor, by M. C. Tobias and J. G. Morrison, A
Dancing Star Foundation Book, Zorba Press, Ithaca, New York, 2011, pp. 175–177.
17 University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., 2014. See also, John L. Capinera, “Butterflies and
moths”. Encyclopedia of Entomology. 4 (2nd ed.). Springer, New York, 2008, pp. 626–672.
60.2 Wet Markets