Stephen Nyilas
2/24/2019
Philosophy term assignment #1
Professor Barrett
1) The article ‘Would Human extinction be a tragedy’, written by Professor Todd May; proposes the idea on the extinction of humans, questioning if it would be such a bad thing? He argues that the world would be better off, there would not be any human environmental footprint or possible extinction or decline in certain animal populations. He is stating that if the human race were to be wiped out, it would not be such a disastrous event.
2) Throughout this article I learned that the existence of the human race is a controversial topic that could be looked at from many sides. The author presents three ways on how we impact our environment in a harmful manner. The first is our effect on climate change; no matter what your view is on global warming or climate change, there is a compelling amount of evidence that in someway we do have a part in it. To some, like the author, we are the problem that causes climate change and without us the world's climate would fluctuate naturally. His second reason is our increasing population encroaches the world's natural ecosystems which have been unharmed for hundreds of thousands of years. There is no doubt that with an increasing population expansion is necessary or we would all be living shoulder to shoulder in cramped communities, leaving our forests and wildlife populations diminished due to our need for expansion. His final point is that factory farming is unnecessary and barbaric; we produce millions of animals only for them to live in what can sometimes be unsanitary and terrible conditions; only for them to eat, grow, and finally die in what he says are “barbaric ways”. I also learned that many believe that if the human race were to be wiped out, it would be because of our own doing. Whether it be from a nuclear war, or our lack of natural resources that have been depleted for own usage.
3) What I gained from reading this article is I need to think more about how I treat the world and the environment around me. For starters I could put my recyclables in the recycling bin instead of the trash, and (even though I try not to) not to litter. I should leave the lights off any time i leave a room as I have a huge problem with forgetting to do that. I could also switch to a more eco friendly car such as a Tesla, which I have been considering on purchasing in the future as my next vehicle. This entire article whether you agree with the argument or not, makes you think a whole lot more on what you could be doing to make sure your not hurting your environment that ...
