While I share and/or respect a lot of the views stated before, there is one thought I feel compelled to add:
This planet is about 5 Billion years old, and what we call "humanity" more or less 5 Million - 1/1000th of the time, a glimpse, less than that. The ecological system on this planet we call nature, whatever our individual beliefs, and indisputably (I think), we are a part of nature.
Nature has no ethics, no morals, no belief, no conscience, no scruples - a concept? Maybe - laws (of nature) it follows? Yes!? And it has time! With no end???
Zillions of species developped and died, new ones develop even in our times, and humans are just one of a kind. What will nature be after a second/1000th (another 5 Million years)? Will humanity be a part? Will nature care or perish, if not???
Our views, whether radical, moralistic, idealistic, depressive or optimistic, are all egocentrical, and to some extent arrogant (as a species, not individually) - who says Humanity is the only "reasonable" species, only because we have not (yet?) found a way to communicate with another species on this planet (I am not considering the universe for the purpose of this discussion)?
Humanity is young, as a species; and diverse, in appearance, in character, in consciousness - our theoretical ethical conscience is less than 5.000 years old, and our practical ethical conscience? At a stage of early bacteria.
Why? Because we individuals, spread over half the planet, are sitting here, well fed, using an electrically powered device to discuss philosophical issues - while 80% of our own kind is also living on this planet, and fail to understand what we're discussing, because they are not well fed and don't know the "benefits" of civilization. Is spending a small fortune on an injured animal house companion a honourable and ethical thing to do? Yes! Was it worth it? For her, who did it, obviously! Is it more ethical to argue that the same amount could have saved 100 human lives in, say, Africa?
Does nature care about these questions? No - each individual makes its own decisions (conscious or instinctive), based on its own values - and the development of a species is the result of the sum of all individual decisions.
