Into the Wild: Envirolosophy

Into the Wild is a great story encompassing the life of "Alexander Supertramp" and implements many philosophical decisions. The thought of living a life consisting of true deep ecology seems daunting and off putting and even after seeing all that he endured, all the happiness he created and spread, I would never wish to lead such a life. True, today's American culture promotes materialism, but times and people change. We see what good we can do, what we can spread to others and take to heart all those we have around us. This is where Alexander draws an incredibly blurry line between human interaction and deep ecology.
The assumption made by him was that to live a truly free life, he cannot become "connected" to others socially or romantically, but this creates a true rift in his psyche. We see how this affects him in little snippets of him talking to himself while portraying his family.
What we finally see at the end of the movie though is the thought process of a man faced with his own death. He reminisces about all he has done and ultimately tells of his greatest regret: "Happiness is only real when shared." This is the "end all" of final acts. We see throughout the entire movie the beauty and happiness that he brings upon himself from traveling across the United States and finally making his dream possible by living off the land in Alaska. But his final revelation is what truly sticks to the heart of human want and desire. We may be able to achieve this higher sense of belonging when we separate ourselves from money, but we cannot truly achieve a sense of self without the interaction, wanting, need and truth from those who surround us.

The Cove Reflection

The Cove is quite a thought provoking documentary that truly depicts Singer’s Utilitarian view of animal rights. The viewer gets to see how the main activists of the movie (Ric O’Barry, Charles Hambleton, Lou and Mandy-Rae, to name a few) see dolphins not as just a source of entertainment, but actually as a species. They wish to treat these majestic, playful creatures of the ocean with the decency that we treat humans: with respect and the right to life. What we find, though, is that a handful of Japanese fishermen do not wish to be so caring for the dolphins.

The town of Taiji, Japan makes money off of the capture, selling and killing of tens of thousands of dolphins a year! A few of the “lucky” ones get picked by zoo and “swim with dolphins” trainers and handlers to be sent off to different parts of the globe for human entertainment. The rest are netted off and mercilessly slaughtered for their meat. The sad truth is that the slaughter is not based off of any ancient tradition or culture of the Japanese people. In fact, most of the population of Japan does not even know that Taiji does such a thing.

Another interesting fact about the killings that makes no sense for them is that dolphin meat is incredibly toxic. The meat contains a high concentration of mercury in comparison to other sea animals that are used for food. Poisoning caused by mercury does not necessarily affect the individual right away, but the poisoning does have an effect on women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. Children born to those with mercury poisoning have a higher chance of being born with birth defects affecting motor systems.

Finally, to further the Singer point of view, the dolphins do indeed portray suffering and a sense of sentience. We get to see the dolphins react with their surroundings. A mirror is put in front of a dolphin and they look back at themselves, posing for profile views and turning upside down to see differences. Ric O’Barry also tells us that his dolphin, Catherine, could tell the difference between herself and another dolphin when she watched an episode of “Flipper”. But what we see is quickly changed to the devastation happening in Taiji. The viewer gets to hear and see footage of dolphins being impaled and communicating madly through sonar. We hear an eerie composition of screaming underwater and we watch as the blood of these dolphins turn the cove into something straight out of a hellish nightmare.

The documentary is a truly moving experience that shows how the rights of animals can be fought for in a peaceful and productive way. The viewer is left with a daunting task and question at the end: Feel bad for what is happening to these animals or actually caring and doing something to prevent, or at least hinder, the massacre that happens in Taiji.  

Whose Rights Are Right?

The thought of giving every single “thing” on Earth a figurative voice or right seems somewhat inconceivable. I agree that animals do indeed deserve some sort of voice, but a limit must exist to decide which “things” truly deserve a right. Those animals with cognitive thinking do indeed deserve some right, but the extent of that right depends solely on where that animal is. A cat living in the United States will have more rights than a cat that lives in Australia. Why, you ask? Because there is a major feral cat problem in Australia and without human intervention in controlling the population Australia’s ecosystem and livelihood would drastically change. Many questions need to be asked and mulled over before deciding if we truly want to give true rights to animals. How would they interfere with the ecosystem? Would letting them populate without human interaction ruin the ecosystem? If not ruin, then change in any form? What if the change brings about a spike in human casualties caused by animals or animal related diseases?

            Earth related items on the other hand are a completely different subject. I do believe that we should contemplate more on the intrinsic value of what we have around us before we start destroying for more anthropocentric ends, but that does not mean we should stop creating in the process. Some businesses have thought outside of the box when thinking about destroying nature to build hotels, housing developments or other human oriented structures. Surely an end can be met where we get what we want while disturbing nature in as little a way as possible. Perhaps that is where true “green” businesses are headed.