I mean, animals are exploited by other animals all the time… The relationships can be mutually beneficial though or at least commensal (one species benefits while the other neither benefits nor is harmed)
There are wasps that mimic bees and take over their hives for their own breeding purposes.
Some prairie dogs use bird calls as a predator warning system, which the bird exploits to steal the prairie dog’s food.
Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds to be raised by them
Some ants farm aphids for their sugary secretions
People were able to live side by side with so many animals over millennia without destroying entire populations. So I’d say that humans using animals instead of machines can be quite solarpunk.
I know you mean well, but the first part of your comment is an appeal to nature - the assertion that because some thing is natural, that it is good, or at least unavoidable. In reality it sidesteps the question: is animal exploitation part of solarpunk?
I believe in harm reduction and imperfect solutions, so I would say yes, to a certain degree.
But I don’t want to be all negative (doomerism is the antithesis of solarpunk after all). You raise some good examples, and for my part, if we can show that animal suffering under human care is less than if they were left totally free, then I would feel a lot less gross about it.
I never said that animal exploitation is good, just that it is ‘natural’ in the world. Solarpunk, as an idea, has everything to do with nature. Coexisting and living with it, rather than against it.
Is it wrong to use ladybugs as a form of pest control instead of harmful chemicals?
It’s it wrong to ride a horse around a farm instead of an ATV or even an electric UTV?
Additionally, the definition of exploitation can vary wildly from person to person, and even moreso between cultures. So imo, pretty much everything that happens in the animal kingdom is party of solarpunk. The “good” and the “bad.” As nothing is all good or all bad. Even murder can be justified in the most extreme cases (i.e. Hitler, Stalin, Trump, billionaire CEOs, etc )
I haven’t seen the video yet. Solarpunk imagines a future where machines serve humans and animals and not the other way around. Animals have a role of mutually beneficial collaboration but not of unilateral exploitation by humanity. Humanity finally becomes what it should be: a responsible custodian of planet Earth and understands and studies the needs and wants of all beings that live on it.
So animal exploitation is still part of Solarpunk, yes? Good luck with that so called “imagination” then.
I think you mean animal cooperation
I mean, animals are exploited by other animals all the time… The relationships can be mutually beneficial though or at least commensal (one species benefits while the other neither benefits nor is harmed)
There are wasps that mimic bees and take over their hives for their own breeding purposes.
Some prairie dogs use bird calls as a predator warning system, which the bird exploits to steal the prairie dog’s food.
Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds to be raised by them
Some ants farm aphids for their sugary secretions
People were able to live side by side with so many animals over millennia without destroying entire populations. So I’d say that humans using animals instead of machines can be quite solarpunk.
I know you mean well, but the first part of your comment is an appeal to nature - the assertion that because some thing is natural, that it is good, or at least unavoidable. In reality it sidesteps the question: is animal exploitation part of solarpunk?
I believe in harm reduction and imperfect solutions, so I would say yes, to a certain degree.
But I don’t want to be all negative (doomerism is the antithesis of solarpunk after all). You raise some good examples, and for my part, if we can show that animal suffering under human care is less than if they were left totally free, then I would feel a lot less gross about it.
I never said that animal exploitation is good, just that it is ‘natural’ in the world. Solarpunk, as an idea, has everything to do with nature. Coexisting and living with it, rather than against it.
Is it wrong to use ladybugs as a form of pest control instead of harmful chemicals?
It’s it wrong to ride a horse around a farm instead of an ATV or even an electric UTV?
Additionally, the definition of exploitation can vary wildly from person to person, and even moreso between cultures. So imo, pretty much everything that happens in the animal kingdom is party of solarpunk. The “good” and the “bad.” As nothing is all good or all bad. Even murder can be justified in the most extreme cases (i.e. Hitler, Stalin, Trump, billionaire CEOs, etc )
I haven’t seen the video yet. Solarpunk imagines a future where machines serve humans and animals and not the other way around. Animals have a role of mutually beneficial collaboration but not of unilateral exploitation by humanity. Humanity finally becomes what it should be: a responsible custodian of planet Earth and understands and studies the needs and wants of all beings that live on it.
“animals are exploited by other animals all the time” and animals rape each other all the time … Mot stupid things ever said …