Except, of course, if you feel humans have no value either, therefore making any beneficial role an animal plays in our survival irrelevant. There really is no other category of thinking in this regard. The yang to the deep ecology yin is referred to as вЂњshallow ecology.вЂќ For shallow ecologists, the life of an animal or plant species only has value if it plays a role in an ecosystem that in some way benefits humans. Academics refer to this ideology as вЂњdeep ecology.вЂќ The value is independent from any role they might play in an ecosystem that benefits humans. That is to say they feel plant and animal species have a value to their own. Many people see an intrinsic value to wildlife and biodiversity. And the laws of nature involve self-preservation of your own species, not necessarily others, right? The difference with humans, of course, is that many members of our species recognize that our survival depends on healthy biodiversity.

ThatвЂ™s enough money to make non-ecologists wonder if it would be better spent on helping the poor, conducting medical research or performing other actions that garner more human-focused returns.ДЄfter all, humans are part of nature. This doesnвЂ™t even include endangered marine animals. A study from 2012 concluded that it would cost $76 billion to save just the endangered animals that live on land.

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