Marek Orko Vácha: Mankind’s Place in Nature

We either behave in an utterly utilitarian manner towards the landscape, following an “exploit and sell” model in which we regard the value of the earth as the value of the minerals contained within it, or we identify, even in a pantheistic manner, nature with Mother Nature and attach almost divine attributes to it. Both approaches were apparent in the film Avatar, for instance. Environmental ethics has without question a differentiated approach to nature. However in recent years biology has added a new and very serious reason to protect nature: we are discovering that we represent part of it in a far stronger sense than we have ever previously believed.