What, exactly are our moral obligations to the sooty tern

1
What, exactly are our moral obligations to the
sooty tern?

• Some ruminations on our ethical responsibility to
  maintain a world that does not totally suck.

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The Sooty Tern

• From the title of the talk, you may have guessed
  that the sooty tern, Onychoprion fuscata, is
  endangered.
• It isnt.
• It is, however, a very cool bird.
• It is one of those animals that lives an
  interesting and complicated life, and in many
  ways, interacts with aspects of the environment
  we might, as humans modify, and in the future,
  lead to its extinction.
• I think it might be a good idea to think about
  how to save it NOW, before its extinction is even
  in question.
• It is probably too late to save pandas.

3

• The sooty tern is actually one of the most
  abundant seabirds on the planet.
• It is very widely distributed on tropical
  islands, especially coral atolls, it migrates
  large distances at sea, hardly ever coming to
  land, and eats fish. Since the last ice age,
  this species has actually rebounded from much
  smaller numbers.
• This bird is migratory and dispersive, wintering
  more widely through the tropical oceans. Sooty
  Terns breed in colonies on rocky or coral
  islands. It nests in a ground scrape or hole and
  lays one to three eggs. It feeds by picking fish
  from the surface in marine environments, often in
  large flocks, and rarely comes to land except to
  breed, and can stay out to sea (either soaring or
  floating on the water) for between 3 to 10 years.
• It belongs to the family Sternidae, which has 44
  species, within the Charadriiformes order, class
  Aves, phylum Chordata.
• Our common ancestor with this species probably
  lived about 280 million years ago. It is part of
  an adaptive radiation of birds that began in the
  Cretaceous period, 120 million years ago, and
  continues today.and will most likely continue
  with renewed vigor after we are gone, as
  ecological opportunities opened by the
  extinctions we create allow for the adaptive
  radiation of new birds.

4

• Among the terns, there are some birds that are
  endemic to very small regions.
• For instance, the Inca tern, Larosterna inca,
  nests on a few islands of the coast of South
  America, is restricted in its foraging to the
  Humbolt current, is dependent upon the nests of
  Humboldt penguins, and eats anchovies and
  lobsters, both of which are species that humans
  exploit.
• Right now, the Inca tern, is near the point at
  which people might start calling it threatened,
  but not nearly so much as many other birds.
• In fact, it has many attributes which potentially
  put it in the path of the human mass-extinction
  event at one point or another.
• If we are to save the Inca tern, I think it is
  imperative that we start thinking about it now if
  we want that species to survive.

5

• The Inca tern is a very cool bird, it is one
  example of the extent to which life on this
  planet is not identical from one place to
  another, it is an example of global biodiversity.
• If this species ever goes extinct, we will have
  truly lost something beautiful.
• From a taxonomic standpoint, we will have killed
  off the unique outgroup of all the other terns.
• From an aesthetic standpoint, we will have
  extirpated something that is very beautiful, and
  exists completely independently of our needs and
  our creative processes.
• From a global standpoint, we will have lost one
  more cog in the biosphere, though other species,
  including the sooty tern, will pick up the slack.
• In short, during our lifetimes, this bird may go
  extinct, and in passing, the world will go on as
  before. Humans will not be impacted in a
  practical way, and yet, the world will suck a
  little more than it did when there were Inca
  terns.

6
This species is cool and very endangeredIt is
the San Bruno Elfin, Callophrys mossil bayensis,
a butterflyendemic to a particular set of hills
I used to play on as a kid.This particular
butterfly hadn't been documented in the area for
many years, bit was was rediscovered on a
particular hill I used to visit, last May

• It belongs to the Lycaenidae, the second-largest
  family of butterfllies, with about 6000 species
  worldwide.
• Many of these are endangered because of the very
  things that make them cool, their intricate
  coevolution with ants. Some are parasites of ant
  colonies, some may be mutualists, but the larvae
  need ants to raise and protect them, and
  particular host plants upon which to lay their
  eggs.

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• Lycaenid larvae are often flattened rather than
  cylindrical, with glands that may produce
  secretions that attract and subdue ants.
• Their cuticles tend to be thickened. Some larva
  are capable of producing vibrations and low
  sounds that are transmitted through the plants.
  They use these sounds to communicate with ants.

8

• The San Bruno elfin is part of an adaptive
  radiation of herbivorous insects that began 120
  million years ago in the Cretaceous period, with
  the evolution of flowering plants.
• It is part of a very old adaptive radiation that
  has played out over vast periods of time.

9

• Part of that adaptive radiation took place in
  California, the place I grew up. As tectonic
  activity pushed the ocean floor up against North
  America, abundant coastal hills provided ideal
  conditions for speciation.
• California harbors tremendous biodiversity, much
  of it endemic, most of the endemic biodiversity
  is threatened.

10

• It is probably too late to save the San Bruno
  elfin.
• It lives in such a restricted habitat, has
  special ecological needs, and of course a great
  metropolitan area has grown up to encompass most
  of its former home range.
• When it goes extinct, the planet we live on will
  suck, just a little more than it did before.
• The biosphere will get by without it. It is a
  minor player, and the communities it occupies
  will probably reorganize in such a way as to get
  by without ant-lycaenid mutualisms.
• I chose this last example because the particular
  habitat in which it exists, is the habitat I came
  to know and love, and a world without San
  Francisco would definitely suck ass.

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• This, of course brings me to the true point of
  the talk.
• I have chosen three species, one very common, one
  less so, but not endangered yet, and one
  critically endangered.
• The efforts we would need to make to save each
  species are not the same-to save the elfin would
  involve major economic sacrifice, to save the
  Inca Tern would involve public concern,
  protection of habitat, and sacrifices by
  fishermen that may not see the terns survival as
  a major priority. To save the sooty tern, we
  must look into the future and simply not destroy
  the oceans, and the functioning of their
  ecosystems.
• The biosphere can get by without all three
  species. If we loose the first two, we can say
  to ourselves that those species were particularly
  extinction-prone anyway. If we loose the sooty
  tern, we will probably not be affected directly
  in any practical sense, but it would be an
  indication that the biosphere might be heading
  for collapse. When species that abundant go
  extinct, something is wrong.

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• Which brings me to my next point
• What, exactly, are the ethical justifications for
  conservation?
• How can we justify annihilating a species that
  has existed for million years in terms of human
  self interest? At the same time, when is it
  reasonable for us to expect sacrifice?

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• Self Interest
• Compassion
• Aesthetics
• Obligation to Future Generations

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Justifications for Biodiversity Conservation

• Human centered
• Aesthetical
• Recreational
• Economic
• Scientific
• Life centered
• Nature centered (Holistic)
• Theistic

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A rationale for biodiversity conservation the
selfish obvious

• Food
• Medicine
• Materials
• Water supply
• Climate regulation
• Science technology

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• Recreation
• Inspiration
• Spiritual stimulation
• Contemplation
• Peace of mind

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Ethical arguments for biodiversity conservation

• 1. Every species has a right to exist.
• 2. The custody over nature is an agreement with
  God.
• 3. All species are interdependent.
• 4. We have obligations toward our neighbours.
• 5. We have obligations toward the next
  generations.
• 6. Respect for human life and diversity is
  compatible with respect for biodiversity.

a sufficient justification for biodiversity
conservation?
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Conservation of natural monuments
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Views on nature conservation ethics
Kuna delegate -4th World Wilderness Congress,
1987

• For the Kuna culture, the land is our mother and
  all living things that we live on are brothers in
  such a manner that we must take care of her and
  live in a harmonious manner on her, because the
  extinction of one thing is also the end of
  another.