Speaking of Forms of Life

Book excerpt: Humans pose an unprecedented threat to life in all its great diversity of forms. The human-induced extinction rate has been compared to “mass extinctions” of the past. But this language masks the fact that the crisis is due to voluntary, and thus, avoidable choices and actions. “Speaking of Forms of Life” shows that at the root of this crisis is the tragic inadequacy of the language predominantly used to represent and address what we are doing, including the language of “sustainable development,” “rights” for animals and the rest of nature, their “intrinsic value,” and conservation of species as “populations.” This talk alienates us from the other living things, from what they actually are, have and do, and it perpetuates the harm and loss. Campagna and Guevara compellingly argue, on rigorous but accessible grounds, that there is an alternative language to guide conservation, in confronting the radically urgent, ethical issues it faces. This is a language with which we are all familiar, mastered by naturalists, from Aristotle to Audubon. It articulates the primary value in life and the standard that must guide how human beings should live, as one form of life, among countless others. This book is a homecoming for those who practice conservation to, above all else, secure a creature’s ability to satisfy the necessities of its form of life.