Moral Choices in an Epoch of Angst

Human conservation success stories with species like Przewalski’s horse, gray whales, black rhinos, Boeseman’s rainbowfish, the Madagascar fossa, the Apollo butterfly, and Jamaican iguana convey an impression that our species’ previous penchant for ecocide has somehow subsided. It hasn’t, and the stark contrast between ourselves and all others, particularly those viruses with whom we are at war, suggests a long way to go ethically and rationally, if Homo sapiens are to every truly rally to the ecologically critical impulses of biophilia.