Louis CK - If God Came Back...

After God created the heavens and the earth, he thought to himself:

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Traditionally, this has been understood to mean that God created everything for the benefit of humans, and at the expense of everything and everyone else. Quite convenient for us, but what if what has been translated as "dominion" (in the sense of ownership) should really have been more accurately translated as "stewardship" (in the sense of "look after this for me till I come back, and don't fuck it up in the meantime!")?

Comedian Louis CK has a few thoughts on the subject...

I bet God is wondering how successfully He managed to make us in His image :p

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Secrets of Our Living Planet - The Emerald Band

I may not be able to blog this week, since I'm going to be spending some quality time with my family, so I'm leaving you dear readers with a fascinating documentary.

We've seen in multiple cases before the intricacies of various animals. What's different about today's documentary is that it showcases the interesting and intricate relationships between various organisms to explain why there is so much biological diversity in the Earth's rain forests, why so many of these organisms are so weird, and why these relationships and processes matter.

Part of the key has to do with the runaway result of an evolutionary arms races of specialization and ingenious manipulation between plants and pests, predators and prey, parasites and hosts. And underneath it all is the process of natural selection, that blind watchmaker that can produce incredible adaptations out of physical, chemical and biological necessity.

See you next week!

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Jane Goodall on Chimpanzees and Human Emotions

Jane Goodall's story of scientific discovery is an amazing one, but even more amazing are the stories that she shares with the world, the way she tells these stories, and the optimism with which she confronts pressing global issues such as conservation, poverty, education, deforestation, etc.

If you want a basic introduction to the wonders and mysteries of our closest evolutionary cousins, you could probably not do better than to listen to Jane Goodall recount some fascinating incidents that have shed so much light into our understanding of these adorable creatures.

But she also carries a powerful ethical message about the need for more humane, sustainable practices, and for the moral obligation we have to those around us and to future generations at whose expense we get to lead lavish and profligate lifestyles. And because rhetoric can inspire but not necessarily guide, she also offers some very practical examples of programs, big and small, already in place and from which we could learn how to make the world a better place for everyone.

I could listen to her speak all day long :)

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Test Your Awareness : Whodunnit? And Look Out for Bikers!

Summer is here, and those of us who are sick of driving and public transportation, or just environmentally or health conscious, are ditching conventional means of commuting and resorting to biking instead.

And as the number of bikers is increasing, tension between drivers, pedestrians and bikers seems to be on the rise, so the first thing I would recommend is that we all chill down a little and become more considerate of all our fellow commuters, no matter how they commute.

And especially for those who drive cars (aka, metal death machines), please be aware that, as human beings, you have physical and cognitive blind spots, and that no matter how good a driver you are, any sudden maneuver may result in a collision that may seriously hurt (or possibly even kill) those of us who are trying to reduce our CO2 footprint by riding bikes.

Don't believe that you might miss something that's right in front of your eyes? Well, you could always check out the invisible gorilla test to see how fallible human attention is, or you could try to solve the crime below, and see how your own observational skills stack up:

Did you pass with flying colors? I didn't think so. So, please, drive with caution, respect traffic rules, be courteous and remember that getting to your destination a minute later is totally worth not living with the guilt of having killed someone because you got impatient and rushed into a thoughtless decision.

In other words, I'm concerned for my life. Don't run me over!!! :)

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Peter Singer - The Ethics of What We Eat

One of the recurring themes in human history has been the blindness that those in power experience with regard to those they manage to subjugate. The question of the interests of the latter seldom breach the surface of the former's consideration.

We may feel enlightened that we're way in the process of overcoming sexism, nationalism, racism and a bunch of other unjustified separations into "us" and "them," but if you just take a minute to think about it, our treatment of non-human animals, growing them, usually in unimaginably cruel conditions, only so that we may then slaughter them and enjoy their flesh (merely as a matter of taste, and not as survival, at least not in the so-called developed world), you may have to re-think, as I have this past year, whether you can call yourself a moral person when you contribute to what could be thought of as animal genocide, except in much greater numbers than anything Hitler himself could have ever hoped on his wildest wet dreams...

And as philosopher Peter Singer demonstrates in the following lecture, what you put in your mouth on a daily basis has ethical implications that go way beyond what you may have ever considered. Should you be a vegetarian? What kind, ovo, lacto, pescaterian? Vegan? Locavore? Conscientious omnivore? Flexitarian? Freegan? Are you contributing to the exploitation of animals? Of poor farmers in foreign countries? Are your food choices producing an environmental footprint that's unsustainable? Who's really paying the true costs of your eating habits? What about the ethics of obesity? Since most of us eat every day, these are all questions we might want to start thinking about as soon as yesterday...

Do you have any tips on how to transition to a more ethical way of eating? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Fear Factory

Economists use the concept of externalities (or external costs) to refer to those costs that that are paid (usually against their will) by parties other than those who engage directly in a purchasing contract.

You know how you love a good bargain? Well, those low prices are not something borne out of the generosity and kindness of corporations. The costs are transferred, and ultimately paid for by the horrible working conditions of workers in some remote corner of the world, by the low wages such workers receive, by their deteriorating health, by their inability to form unions who might protect them, by the depletion of their natural resources, you get the picture.

The money you don't pay a corporation is the same money that corporation takes away from some kid in a dark and damp factory who doesn't have a choice, a voice or a say. So, as Jon Stewart shows in the following clip, you might want to think about all those unnecessary gadgets you carry around, and the real costs that producing them and giving you a lower price ultimately represent.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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And when it comes to food, external costs are also paid by the poor animals who must endure nightmarish living conditions on a daily basis until they are cruelly slaughtered... all so you can enjoy some steak or a hamburger that will eventually give you diabetes...

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Science - What's It Up To?

Science claims to be looking for cures for diseases, save the planet from the multiple dangers that threaten it, and to want to solve and understand the mysteries of the universe, but Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, sat down with a conservative conspiracy theorist bimbo to try to uncover what science is really up to... and discovers instead that you can't underestimate how bat-shit-insane and idiotic you can be when you let your retarded ideology determine the shit that comes out of your mouth...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Wow... and I thought Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann were idiots...

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Jae Rhim Lee - My Mushroom Burial Suit

Death is not exactly one of the most pleasant topics of discussion, but it is an inescapable and universal aspect of life that we cannot avoid indefinitely. In the West, we tend to think that the appropriate thing to do with the bodies of the dead is to either cremate them or bury them in a coffin that's virtually hermetically sealed. Herodotus tells us that the Callatians used to make a meal out of their dead begetters.

Of the three choices, and despite its apparent gruesomeness, I think the Callatians have the best argument in their favor (assuming their relatives did not die of disease). Cremation is not environmentally friendly (to say the least, since it requires massive amounts of fuel to burn, and ends up releasing all the nasty chemicals that have accumulated in your body over the years into the air that the rest of us have to breathe), and burying the dead in sealed coffins guarantees that our bodies will benefit a bunch of maggots that will not themselves contribute to further the cycle of life (since they're also stuck inside the stupid box), and that's no way to live... err... die... end... whatever...

I personally favor donating one's body for organ transplants, or to science for research. Jae Rhim Lee thinks that if you want to do your part to be environmentally friendly, even after you die, you might be interested in her mushroom burial suit, which contains toxic-gobbling mushrooms and other interesting goodies.

Oh, and did I forget to mention you'd go out making a fashion statement? :)

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George Carlin - Pro-Life, Abortion & the Sanctity of Life

In my cursory and anecdotal study of human nature, I've noticed that those most loud and sure about their own opinions tend to love to vilify the views of others instead of fairly assessing and evaluating alternative points of view. Aristotle once said that it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain various points of view on the same subject without necessarily accepting them, and I tend to think he was right about that.

Needless to say, many of these self-righteous and close-minded ideologues love to preach and to pontificate, and they tend to never wonder whether keeping an open mind and being critically curious might not be a better alternative to having made up one's mind before having sufficient evidence to draw a conclusion one way or the other.

And because these folks rarely question whether their strongly-held views are consistent with each other, people like comedian George Carlin (doing the modern comedic equivalent of Socrates' job as a gadfly) get to put them on the spot and make an awesome mockery of the incoherence and inconsistency of their views, as he does on this skit about abortion, animal rights, religion, and the sanctity of life... You've been warned :)

One could lead a few lectures on Nietzsche's hermeneutic circle; Hobbes' psychological egoism, contractarianism and his theory of rights; Peter Singer's views on abortion, utilitarianism, animal rights, and much more just off these 12 minutes... Thanks, George Carlin!

For more on our inevitably biased point of view, check out Douglas Adams meditate on where the concept of God comes from.

And remember, chickens are decent people, so please be kinder to them and other animals.

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Farm to Fridge - The Truth Behind Meat Production

We all like to think we're good people, but sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between an accurate description of ourselves and wishful thinking. When you think of yourself as a good person, you're probably thinking that the fact that you've never killed anyone ought to count in your favor... except that there is a very good chance that you are a direct contributor to a system in which innocent beings are treated under cruel and debilitating conditions before they are slaughtered in ways that you would not wish upon your worst enemy. And the justification for these barbaric practices? It's not a question of survival, it's just a question of taste.

I'm not one to stand for cheap appeals to emotion instead of good reasoning. Feelings are unreliable guides to philosophical and empirical questions, and unless you have a decent understanding of when they're reliable and when they're not, feelings have no chance of standing as the criteria of moral judgments. That being said, and as David Hume argued in his ethical theory, reason cannot aspire to have the same motivating impact as sentiments do, so when reasons will not do by themselves what's necessary for us to behave in more ethical and humane ways, maybe it's time to accompany them with some visceral reality.

The following clip illustrates some of the ways in which countless animals are treated by our factory-farming practices (and be warned: there is some seriously disturbing imagery). Terms like cruel and unusual do not apply here, since the usual is the problem.

If you don't have the will-power to become a vegetarian or vegan overnight (and count me in that camp), maybe you can take some gradual steps to lessen your unethical footprint: eat less meat than you do now, consume free-range instead of factory-farmed meat, buy locally grown organic food, etc. This doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing either/or kind of situation. There's always room for ethical improvement, and every little bit counts.

And before you start rationalizing your own meat-eating behavior in the kind of disingenuous ways that Jean-Paul Sartre referred to as bad-faith, just read this classic piece by philosopher Peter Singer carefully first, be honest with yourself, and then we'll talk...

And for more fascinating and important readings, check out the Animal Rights Library.

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Sarah Palin & Michelle Bachmann - Fillin' In

Well, after recently claiming that being the President of the United States would only diminish her need for absolute power, it should come as no surprise to anyone that mavericky grizzly momma bear from bizarro world, Sarah Palin, has announced she will not be seeking the presidential nomination for the Republican Party. One-toothed tea-baggers must be heartbroken :)

In any case, the following hilarious animations shows us what a Palin-Bachmann ticket might have looked like:

De-regulatin' :)

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The Story of Cap & Trade

Here in the United States, a large percentage of our population seems to be increasingly obsessed with the 'invisible hand' of capitalism and the 'wisdom' of the free market. Interestingly, many of these folks are also the very same people who are highly skeptical (to say the least) of the 'wisdom' of the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection. And of course, they'll try to rationalize away the cognitive dissonance with the kind of twisted logic one should expect in these scenarios.

But that's the point: while natural selection and the free market are incredibly good at eventually producing innovation, they do it at the cost of great losses for the majority of those fed into the grinder. There is no long-term foresight nor moral concern for anyone's welfare in these mechanisms. For everyone who survives and thrives in these systems, hundreds or thousands must perish, by necessity.

So, when large corporations (already involved in a tradition of corruption schemes) try to engineer 'environmental solutions' to the world's problems, we should be extremely cautious, not only that there might be corruption purposely or inadvertently built into the system somewhere along the line, but that the very nature of our understanding of the phenomenon in question becomes tarnished.

The main problem with so-called solutions like Cap & Trade, in my opinion, is not even the possibility of large-scale corruption: it's the fact that it filters our perception of the environment and natural resources so that we start to see them as commodities to be used, abused and manipulated for purely financial purposes. The value of people, animals and the environment is then understood in terms of how they contribute to the accumulation of wealth. If they don't contribute or feed into the system, they are then perceived to have no value, and if they have no value, they're not worth saving or fighting for.

Anyway, the following animation with Annie Leonard beautifully captures some of the devilish details built into the proposal of Cap & Trade and gives us some food for thought.

For more, check out The Story of Stuff or The Story of Bottled Water.

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Hand Shadows

I've been spending a fair amount of time preparing for a new class I'll be teaching this semester on Environmental Ethics, so I haven't had much time to prepare an intellectually stimulating entry for everyone today.

I do have, however, some aesthetically pleasing videos showing both the creativity of hand shadow artists and the ease with which our minds can create three-dimensional mental representations based on black & white, 2-dimensional surfaces...

And why don't we get a bit environmental too?

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300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds

It all started during the industrial revolution (at least our own involvement did... plenty of plants and animals had died and gotten compressed into fossil fuels deep below the earth millions of years before we arrived on the scene), and there's no denying that a huge part of our technological success over the past two or three centuries is due to our ability to exploit this natural resource.

Still, it's also caused its share of problems, so our relationship is rather strained and complicated. Whose isn't? Anyway, here's a short animated history (RSA style) and what our future might look like depending on the choices we individually and collectively make now.

You know you want to learn more about Nikola Tesla and Michael Faraday...

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Paul Nicklen - Tales of Ice-Bound Wonderlands

You may remember the story of how photographer Paul Nicklen came face to face with a leopard seal, one of the Antarctic's top predators. Obviously, since he is the one who told us the story, you know he survived the encounter, but what you may not know is why he was there in the first place.

In the following TEDTalk presentation, Nicklen tells us of his childhood dream of getting people to become more acquainted with the wonders hidden beneath the ice. More importantly, and through the use of incredible photographs, he makes a passionate plea for conservation as he explains the importance that the polar caps have with respect to the food cycle: that's where it all starts.

For more on conservation, check out the environment tag.
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7 Billion

You've probably seen some animated videos trying to explain the significance of recent demographic and social trends (here, here and here, for instance).

Today we have one more explaining the significance of the fact that the planet is populated by 7 billion of us. The clip is beautifully done, and although it seems that its main objective is to clarify things and put them in perspective, it wouldn't be complete without touching on a few of the social and environmental implications of such a realization.

And if any of this is making you wonder about the ethics of helping those in need, philosopher Peter Singer can help organize your thoughts in just 3 minutes.
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Seth Lloyd - Quantum Hanky Panky

You've probably heard Depak Chopra and other new-age quacks talk about 'quantum healing' and other similarly pseudo-scientific sounding phrases, so you might be feeling skeptical when you hear the words 'quantum hanky panky' and you see the picture of the pretty girl on the right of this entry, but this ain't Depak Chopra... this is Seth Lloyd, an MIT engineering professor who specializes in quantum mechanics (and especially quantum computing).

In the following presentation, and through the use of some fascinating examples (like photosynthesis, smelling and the avian navigational compass), this endearing geek extraordinaire (with a hilarious laugh, by the way) argues that there is growing evidence that biological systems engage in some ridiculously interesting quantum behavior. Biology, meet quantum mechanics... and make some babies!

In terms of the example about smell, sure, the lock-and-key mechanism may not fully explain what's going on, but why go to the quantum level when the differences in weight between the similarly structured molecules might do the job? Or has that hypothesis been eliminated already?
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Hans Rosling - The Magic Washing Machine

I don't know about you, but when Hans Rosling speaks, I listen. It's like this adorable man is incapable of being uninteresting :)

In this TEDTalk presentation, he argues that the greatest invention of the industrial revolution is the washing machine. Of course, with population growth and the ever-expanding energy and pollution problems, the tree-hugger in you might want to object to such an irresponsible claim... but you forget this is Hans Rosling we're talking about, so there's going to be more to this claim than meets the eye :)

Check out some of his previous presentations here, here and especially here.
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Lord Robert Winston - How Science Changed Our World

It is just not possible to deny the ubiquitous impact that science has had in all of our lives. The very fact that you're reading these lines on a computer or mobile phone (and are probably addicted to both) attests to the incredible power and influence that scientific innovation exerts on all of us, especially considering that much of the technology simply didn't exist until quite recently.

And while scientific blunders are inevitable, and controversies will always arise for good and bad reasons, the record speaks for itself: we are better off today than our ancestors were in the past.

So, what are the ten most important scientific discoveries or innovations of the past half a century? Well, any list will have some sort of subjective bias built into it, but Robert Winston has a few eclectic and deliciously fascinating nominations, from lasers so powerful they may finally help us finally produce nuclear fusion, to methods of contraception, the world wide intertubes, in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem cell research, microchips, functional magnetic resonance imaging that helps us see the brain in action, bionic prostheses and much, much more...

What else would you nominate?
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