Causes
Not knowing that our natural resources will come to an end and erroneous environmental ethics
Humans use natural resources as if there was no tomorro! Resources such as water, oil, clean air and other raw materials are treated in the economic system as if they were in infinite supply. On top of that, these resources are considered the property of the wealthy and not as something we all jointly own. The consumption of natural resources already exceeds the rate at which they are naturally replenished.
If we realized that the environment and all its resources were jointly owned by all of us and that they are valuable and in limited supply, we should surely have a different attitude.
Film: The price of consumption
independent.footprint.wwf.org.uk
Treatment of non-human animals
Animals are considered the property of humans and, as a result, are treated as objects. Although we have known for a long time that many animals possess intelligence, self awareness, social behaviour, communication and language and the ability to suffer they are treated as if they were simply machines.
Agriculture is based on maximizing profit and not on meeting the needs of animals. Livestock is completely at the mercy of the "free market".
It is time to rethink our attitude to other animals on the planet!
Film: Meet your Meat
More Information:
- Where do my eggs come from?
- YouTube documentry
- Milk production
- YouTube documentry
- Why Animals have a Right to Life
- Animal rights philosophy – from the point of view of the natural sciences
Capitalism
The capitalist economic system has caused a previously unimaginable flood of goods and produce. Many people have never had it so good.
On the other hand many current social developments are not coincidences but the logical consequences of capitalism.
Competition and the necessity to make ever more profit result in humans, animals and the environment becoming less important than these interests. People are forced to keep up their consumer status – anything else lowers their social standing.
After a long working day there is not much time left to reflect on politics and media propaganda nor to question one's own life-style.
The fact that the divide between rich and poor is growing ever wider is also inherent in capitalism. Someone who works for eight hours produces goods with a particular worth. That person's wage is always less than the worth of their work. The difference is retained by the capitalist employer as profit. Many people contribute valuable work and are not paid accordingly while many receive very high salaries and contribute little.
Market concentration will always result from competition: small companies collapse while larger companies expand. This leads to large companies having enormous power, which means they can also influence politics in their favour. Examples of this are companies exerting pressure on government to reduce taxes by threatening job cuts, war over resources, privatization, world trade and so on1. These results are described as neo-liberalism but they are inseparable from capitalism.
More informations:
- Animal Liberation and Social Revolution
- Connections between social movements
