Protest/Demo/installation for animals

[Aquaplant]

Your first chapter is something I can agree on, but the rest ranges from just silly to outright... I don't even want to say it, but here goes.

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

And I think here is a grave problem waiting to happen. This "solution" promises even more separation. How is separation working out for us as a species so far - it has brought us to the brink of ecological and social calamity. And the solution is "more separation"?
I know the dream of techno-utopians is to somehow create a bubble for humans that only runs on a bit of water for the fusion reactors and otherwise is completely free of any contact to nature. To me, this is quite a horrible vision, because I see what detachment does. What if the last remnants of relationship and interdependence between humans and nonhumans vanish?

There is no relationship, only humans using animals for their own personal gains. The animals don't depend on us, we depend on them, and that is an imbalance that must be fixed.

Do you really think this will not have a very much catastrophic effect to the way people think of the world? What happened to ecosystems that we do not depend upon usually? They have been turned into "something useful". What about animals that we do not depend on? They go extinct. There are a few exceptions when the dependence is not a need but a want, if we want to keep cuddly panda bears and joyful dolphins alive because they are likeable. Or if we want to keep a patch of forest as a nature park to become a recreational zone for eco-tourists. I am not thinking so much about the generation now, but about future generations - if they loose the feeling of interconnectedness and relationship with the natural world, how can one expect them to actually understand and love it? Already, children who grow up in cities do not recognize goat, think soil is just dirt, wild blackberries are not edible and walking barefoot is dangerous. Some think that no one can seriously sleep in a tent or cook food over a fire, that protecting a forest means to clean up the forest floor of all that waste that is there - twigs and branches and such nuisances. And we are yet far away from the level of detachment that some seek.

Just because we wouldn't be dependable of nature, doesn't mean that we would automatically stop appreciating it. There's a difference between observing nature and living in an unstable relationship with nature. The latter is what we are currently doing, and the only reasonable course of action at this time is to pursue transparency.

That example is not meant to stand by itself, it is menat in the context of this discussion - that if people are separated, they do not have a reason to care for each other. They care about who is next to them, who they have a relationship with and who they in some way (physically or emotionally) depend upon or vice versa.
Again in that context - do you think more separation from Nature is really the best course to take?

I care for nature, but my presence is inherently disruptive, and even destructive at times. Maybe the kind of low impact super eco-behaviour that you have adopted isn't that much of a strain on nature, but you must understand that we are not all that selfless. Not to mention we are far too numerous.

Avatar once again is having that kind of theme as well. The people at RDA are physically seperated from Pandora. There is a huge fence, massive machines, unbreakable windows and breathing masks. And they behave accordingly. The Avatar drivers penetrate that separation and start building a connection. Their Avatar bodies depend on the air of Pandora. Jake goes further than that and joins the NA'Vi who totally depend on their relationship with Pandora. And consequently the more Jake enters into a relationship with Pandora, the more he regards it as a home and partner to be protected.

That's because one would kind of die if one weren't physically separated from Pandora. Just like if I go to a safari, I would probably get eaten by an angry lioness or something. The best thing to do is to observe nature from a safe distance without disturbing it too much.

And the same happens in other animals as well - There are not many absolute and definitive characteristics that really make us as a species so special if one looks at the whole issue from the outside. We can find things that separate us from other animals, but to judge them as superior or as a justification to behave in a certain way is pretty arbitrary. Just like saying that we separate male humans from female humans because one has a dongle and then claim that only a person with a dongle is really intelligent and truely a higher being. (This of course happened and happens in human cultures). It is picking an arbitrary discerning property and turning it into a justification for a kind of separation that is not balanced by a relationship. And that way a relationship can be a loving and caring one between two different and separated beings, a man and a woman - or it can be discrimination based on the lack of that relationship and an emphasis on the differences and end up in a variety of misogynistic tendencies.

Please, for the love of all that is good in this world, do not, DO NOT go there.