For those of you who didn't attend the finding animals conference, especially the segment "engaging with animal subjects: ethical and ecological considerations", you really missed out on some great stuff, although I'd have to agree with Hillary that portions of it went way over my head (especially the academic humor). And our exit wasn't the most graceful. What I found really interesting about this segment was that it affirmed something I've been thinking all semester-that our political philosophy has a pretty big influence on our environmental philosophy. The first speaker, Cary Wolfe, made a terrific comparison of our current factory farming practices to Nazi Germany and the holocaust. He reasoned that in the same way that totalitarian state promoted genocide was the ultimate conclusion of authoritarian and nationalistic trends of the 1800s, current factory farming practices are the ultimate conclusion of our attitudes of domination and exploitation of nature forwarded by the industrial revolution. He concluded that just as the ideology and logic of fascism was challenged and defeated, the logic and ideology behind our cruel treatment of animals will eventually be defeated as well. He also referenced peter singer's utilitarian views when talking about the Spanish parliaments passage of ape rights laws.

The second speaker, Gregg Mittman, discussed how animals are portrayed in the mass media. He talked about how conservatives attached their values of traditional marriage and child bearing to the documentary march of the penguins, and how animal sex was more heavily represented in the 90s on tv than the so called ' blue chip documentaries' This seems to suggest that the majority of us have an anthropomorphic view of animals and our relationship to them, and that we will continue to impart our political and social vaules onto the environment and nature. While it may be hard not to do so, this presentation, like our class, showed me that there are actually many different takes on environmental philosophy that don't invovle a purely human centered view. Mittman also discussed a project he was working on invovling a tribe in africa that lives among elephants and is in constant battle with them for survival on a changing terrain. I believe that this scenario functions as a sort of microcausum of the battle between human society and all of nature. The solution that the scientists seemed to be trying to implement was a combination of techinques like advanced tracking and studying the elphants combined with things like bees nests on wire to protect crops from elephant. Instead of trying to separate the people and the elephants, or the people killing all of the elephants, the scientists wanted to find ways for them to live together in the same place in relative harmony, where both people's and elephants interests are considered. I think that the mentality this solution adopts will be necessary to solve our current environmental crises.