Biodiversity - A discussion on Vandana Shiva's excerpt

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1."Our ignorance of the ecological functions of diverse forms of life is no excuse to push species to extinction..."

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. We should definitely make sure that we take into account the repercussions of messing with species. I believe that it is not very intelligent to grab species and experiment on them later bringing them to near extinction for financial gain. That is morally wrong but sometimes required to advance our own species. It's difficult to decide whether to destroy one valuable thing or the other. Unfortunately, we must find a balance so that we do not end up destroying all life in the process. Ignorance is not bliss and if we continue to view it as such, our future does not seem so bright.

2."Compassion for all livings things has been the basis of most ancient faiths..."

I don't agree with this statement at all. Just because ancient faiths had compassion for all living things doesn't mean that we should all adopt that philosophy. The author provides no reasoning as to why we should adopt them. I think there's a reason why ancient philosophies are not prevalent today such as cavemen no longer exist. They're old, outdated and did not prove prosperous in terms of our survival. Maybe the author had a very good point in mind but didn't elaborate on it. Therefore, me as the reader was left confused as to why someone would make such a statement and then provide no evidence of its effectiveness.


3. "It has been estimated that three billion people... depend on traditional medicines as a principle source of cures for disease."

I don't understand this statement at all. Isn't traditional medicine the same thing as the medicine we have now? We also use plants for our medicines so I'm not really sure what point the author is trying to make here. I understand that not all of our medicines are plant-based but why is it wrong for us to want to cure disease? Some of it might be harmful to the environment but I'm sure we've done our research and figured out that it's worth it for some treatments because there might not be something in nature that could alleviate certain symptoms.