5 - Where Do We Draw the Line?

Summary

A description of the author’s relation to his special needs daughter reveals that morality is often not rooted in equality but rather in a fundamental inequality based in nearness, choice, knowledge, needs, and love. This insight is applied to the human–nature relationship, emphasizing that, just as among people, our connections with nature will be inconsistent. Given that we must consume and displace nature to survive, moral rules based in equality and rights simply will not work. Instead, moral attention can be focused on how greed, competition, violence, techno-addiction, and alienation from nature are ultimately making humans miserable. Virtues such as compassion and gratitude could transform our relation to nature and lead to a saner, more fulfilling life for people. As in the conclusion to Chapter 3, the imperative is to examine ourselves and how we are living as much as to evaluate the moral status of nature.