We should protect habitat so that they can continue to flourish in their natural habitat. We should be giving them the opportunity to live their own lives in their own way. Goodall: We shouldn’t be managing and using them. Phillips: Do you believe climate change will alter the relationship we have with other animals, and our ability to manage and use them in the way we do at the moment? Hugo van Lawick/the Jane Goodall Institute Jane Goodall wrote up her field notes each evening in her tent at Gombe. ![]() It’s very exciting for any young person wanting to go into this field - these really are exciting times. We also know, for example, that trees can communicate to the micro fungi on their roots, under the soil. Even some insects have been trained to do simple tests. We now know some birds like crows and the octopus can be, in some situations, more intelligent than small human children. We now know it’s not only the great apes, elephants and whales that are amazingly intelligent. But the problem is that because of the way our societies have developed, the harm we inflict on the environment, and the devastation we’ve caused so many species, we now have an obligation to try and change things so animals can have a better future. Goodall: Well, I don’t know about having a right to to manage them. Does that give us a moral duty towards them? Or, do you think we have a right to manage them? Phillips: You mentioned the importance of pain in animals and sentience. I mean, once you are prepared to admit that we humans are not the only beings on the planet with personalities, minds and, above all, emotions, and once you are prepared to admit that animals are sentient and can not only know emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, but especially they can feel pain - then, as humans with advanced reasoning powers, we have a responsibility to treat them in more humane ways than we so often do. Goodall: I would say it’s a humanistic responsibility. ![]() Jane Goodall famously discovered that chimpanzees use tools.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |