The Anthropocentric View Of The Environmentalists

The world has been defined by man to be for man. Placing man at the center of the world is called anthropocentrism. It allows humans to regard animals as “natural resources”, objects for human use and consumption. These self-serving notions are even glorified in religious writings, such as the Bible, imbuing these violent practices with alleged divine acceptance, and insulating them from reflection by erecting impenetrable walls of faith. Bloodthirsty humans need little justification for their massacre of nature, but armed with faith they are a non-stoppable, self-promoting holocaust.

This anthropocentric view of the world has resulted in environmental destruction. Mountains, rivers, and even entire rainforests are nothing more than objects to satisfy man’s hunger for control and material possessions. And this subjugation of the world and its inhabitants to human desires has not exempted people from slaughtering one another, as well. This is because the connection between non-humans and humans is irrefutable. We are all animals. If non-human animals are exploitable and expendable, then so are human animal.

There is a big difference between environmentalists and animal rights activists. Clearly environment issues and animal rights issues are tightly related, but not in the way most humans think that they are. Most humans see environment, animals, nature, forests, vegetarianism, endangered species and recycling, all as about the same thing. They combine these issues for the wrong reasons, and label in the same way people with very different ideologies. In relation to environment the ideologies are even opposed.

We see our selves as suffer reducers. The suffer of every animal means to us, every individual animal for him self. We try to prevent suffer if we can. That is why we mange a simple and a “green” life. Every consumption causes suffer. Therefore we consume only what is needed to our survival and our fight against suffer. We live like that because of the animals, not because of earth or nature. They are notions, concepts – they can’t feel. The earth can’t suffer – its inhabitants can. The earth don’t care that it is getting warmer and it don’t care that the ozone layer is being depleted. It can’t feel anything. The creatures who live on it can. The forests don’t mind that they are being cut off – their residents do. The trees are their homes. This is why and how we see the importance of protecting the environment. Destroying the environment, which is billions of creatures’ homes, is not different than any other form of animal abuse.

It seems that environmentalists protect the environment in a selective and inconsecutive way. Environmentalists who consume animal products are actually harming more than helping. Since all the environment actions are not actually for the benefit of the earth but for its residents. The meat eater environmentalist is exploiting and torturing some animals while he tries to help others. It is an irrational and inconsistent conception.

There is no other way to explain environmentalists that consume animal products, which are the number one cause of environmental damages, than selfishness, hypocrisy and anthropocentrism. Environmentalists protect the environment for themselves! They want to keep watching endangered species for their interests, not for the sake of reducing these animals’ suffer. To sufferists like us, all creatures equal the same. An endangered species animal doesn’t suffer more (or less) than any other animal.

The ideologies gaps are very wide. Nevertheless, most people don’t seize the differences between them. It is absurd to hear from environmentalists that it is natural to eat meat. Sadly, we hear it all the time. All they care about is their little green place. The facts are not debatable. Factory farming is an environmental death execution, What makes many environmentalists the environment executers.

People who see themselves as nature lovers actually see the great outdoors as a rejuvenating getaway from urban life. They enjoy the tall trees, clean air, and clean rivers and lakes. They value the way nature makes them feel. They believe in saving a forest, because they like to hike in them. They plead for saving a particular river, because they like to fish in it. They cry for saving the rainforests, because their planet depends on it.

Rainforests, in fact, are a primary concern for anthropocentric environmentalists for many reasons that reveal their human-centered bias. Besides the greenhouse effect resulting from rainforest destruction, they complain that species of plants and animals are becoming extinct as the forests are destroyed. Why is that important? It is because we may lose potentially beneficial medicinal plants. Also, loss of animal species reduces the world’s gene pool and robs humans of rich, varied biological resources. They do not care about the lives of individual animals. All they care about is endangered species, and the effect of such a loss on humans.
Environmentalists care more about keeping the wild available for human recreational use than about the destruction of the animals homes and their suffer.

Almost all the environmentalists we have met, consume meat, eggs, dairy products, leather, coffee, cocoa, tobacco etc. most of them drive a car too. All are environmentally destructive industries.
If we can’t even count on them what hope do the animals have?