Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves : Why Animals Matter for Pandemics, Climate Change, and other Catastrophes

Abstract

In 2020, COVID-19, the Australia bushfires, and other global threats served as vivid reminders that human and nonhuman fates are increasingly linked. Human use of nonhuman animals is contributing to pandemics, climate change, and other global threats. And these global threats are, in turn, contributing to biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and nonhuman suffering. In this book, Jeff Sebo argues that humans have a moral responsibility to include animals in global health and environmental policy, by reducing our use of animals as part of our mitigation efforts and increasing our support for animals as part of our adaptation efforts. Applying and extending frameworks such as One Health and the Green New Deal, Sebo calls for reducing support for factory farming, deforestation, and the wildlife trade; increasing support for humane, healthful, and sustainable alternatives; and considering human and nonhuman needs holistically when we do. Sebo also considers connections with practical issues such as education, employment, social services, and infrastructure, as well as with theoretical issues such as well-being, moral status, political status, and population ethics. In all cases, he shows that these issues are both important and complex, and that we should neither underestimate our responsibilities because of our limitations nor underestimate our limitations because of our responsibilities. Both an urgent call to action and a survey of what ethical and effective action will require, this book will be invaluable for everyone interested in what kind of world we should attempt to build and how.