Aspen Ideas Festival

Mother Nature Is Cruel. Should Humans Intervene?

Should we ever intentionally drive a species extinct? Most people probably agree on smallpox and malaria, but what about the New World screwworm? Its very existence in the wild causes horrific suffering. Humans didn’t create the unrelenting drumbeat of suffering that occurs in nature every single day. Nature is amoral, because evolution doesn’t care.

Mother Nature Is Cruel. Should Humans Intervene?

1h

Should we ever intentionally drive a species extinct? Most people probably agree on smallpox and malaria, but what about the New World screwworm? Its very existence in the wild causes horrific suffering. Humans didn’t create the unrelenting drumbeat of suffering that occurs in nature every single day. Nature is amoral, because evolution doesn’t care.

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