Our Ethical Responsibility

Many people think that if humans don’t gain any direct benefit from a species that there is no value in saving it. There are others that believe we have an ethical responsibility to preserve species just because; that humans are not owners of the land but simply users of it the same as a bald eagle, a Douglas fir tree, or a Coho salmon.  Many of the species that exist today have been around for a lot longer than humans, and they deserve to be around for millions of more years. We should not destroy what we did not create. These other species have as much right to a healthy ecosystem as humans do. Humans have the power to cause extinctions and destroy habitats; it should be our responsibility as well to prevent this from happening for the benefit of all organisms and for future generations to enjoy. Future generations will only have the biodiversity that we leave them, and current decisions we make will determine the genetic, ecosystem, and species diversity present in the future.