Category: Uncategorized

Is not caring about wild-animal suffering speciesist?

Two terms to define here first:

Wild-animal suffering is the idea that animals in the wild experience some amount of suffering naturally, e.g. from parasites, exposure, hunger, being killed slowly by predators, etc. Some argue that the life of an average wild-animal (especially when you consider marine animals and insects) is so full of suffering that they experience more suffering than wellbeing. This might lead to the conclusion that their lives are not worth living, and would be better off not being born, so to speak. (Note this doesn’t automatically mean we should kill all predator animals, as some strawman makers of this would argue)

Speciesism I’ll leave to Peter Singer to define (from his book Animal Liberation): “a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species”. It is a similar idea to racism, sexism, or any other ‘ism’.

Many argue (and I’d agree) that causing harm to animals for small amounts of human pleasure (such as eating their flesh or secretions) is speciesist. I prefer the utilitarian framework, but I concede that this is speciesist as much as the mistreatment of other races would be racist.

I’ve seen recently some people argue that thinking we have the right to intervene in the lives of wild animals in any way to try and alleviate suffering is speciesist. I argue here the opposite.

When a human is intentionally harmed by another human, we naturally think that this is bad. Most people also believe that a human intentionally harming a non-human is bad (though some will exempt certain animals from this care!). When a human suffers through some natural cause, e.g. exposure, hunger, disease, we tend to also think this is bad, and will do our best to help them. Why should we think that the same suffering, experienced by a wild animal, is not bad, or that we shouldn’t also try to prevent it?

Suffering is bad regardless of the cause, as the individual experiencing the suffering doesn’t intrinsically care where the suffering came from. And so I argue that caring about natural human suffering but not natural non-human suffering is speciesist.

Alternate explanations for conspiracies

This is a cautionary tale of understanding the existence of alternate explanations.

I’ve seen this image floating around with the caption of something like: “That blue book is called ‘How to lie with statistics’. And you trust this man?” Implying I suppose that he wants to kill us all with vaccines after all.

Image result for bill gates how to lie with statistics

I was intrigued so I looked up what the book was about. It turns out to not be aimed at teaching people how to misuse statistics, but rather about how others can misuse statistics to caution readers of statistics and infographics etc. to be wary of people misusing or manipulating statistics (ironically, some conspiracy theorists might actually benefit from reading the book). I wonder if a single person actually looked up the books’ contents, or if they saw the title and were happily confirmed of their suspicions.

In any case, even if the book were teaching malicious use of data, one should not fear reading books they disagree with. It’s a cornerstone of being open minded.

Stay sciencey folks.

Possible environmental benefits of off-Earth mining

Executive order signed by Trump to encourage extraction of resources on the Moon. Not sure what this means in practice (possibly it’s just symbolic), as it seems to fly in the face of the Outer Space Treaty, which the US is a signatory to. I know many people are worried about the downsides of this (there are some, I acknowledge), but as someone who works in space science I want to talk about some of the possible upsides. Notably, there are possible environmental gains to be had.

It is easier to get from the Moon or some asteroids to low Earth orbit than it is to get from Earth to low Earth orbit. If we mine ice on either the Moon or asteroids, apply electrolysis to separate out the hydrogen and oxygen, we can use that as a propellant for satellites or space missions. This will mean fewer refuel launches from Earth, and having to relaunch fewer satellites (today they last ~20 years then run out of fuel so we relaunch them).

Metals are becoming increasing harder to extract on Earth, with many of the concentrated, near surface deposits already being extracted. This leaves a number of deeper and less concentrated deposits with a greater impact to extract. As we are reliant on metals, extracting these from an asteroid and returning them to Earth may have less of an environmental impact.

Helium 3 can be found on the Moon in abundance. While nuclear fusion technology seems to be some way off, if it were commercialised, a supply of helium 3 from the Moon could supply fusion reactors for clean energy.

And an extra one not quite related to mining – but some people have proposed putting solar panels on the Moon and beaming the power back to the Earth’s surface to be collected and used.

Streaming to raise money for Animals Australia

Whether it’s animals in farms, on live export ships, companion animals being mistreated or native animals having their habitat destroyed, animals across Australia need our help.

On the 27th of August, I will be doing a 16 hour stream on Twitch.tv playing one of my favourite games which is being re-released that day, World of Warcraft Classic, starting from 8 am AEST.

Please consider making a contribution to support the great work that Animals Australia does to help animals across Australia. Let’s kick some butt for the animals!

I will be matching all donations made up to a total of $1,000.

If you’d like to watch the stream live, you will find it at twitch.tv/vegan_bandit. Please stop by and say hello!

Thoughts on vegan activism in Australia

A few people have asked me for my thoughts on the animal advocacy performed across the country yesterday, so I thought I would share them here.

There was an impressive variety of different actions taken yesterday, and it’s important not to lump them all together. Some actions focused on raising awareness about the realities of animal abuse, others took the form of protests, while others still involved other disruptions.

I strongly support the right of activists to protest peacefully in drawing attention to the cruelties that are inflicted on animals. Peaceful protest is something I support regardless of what is being protested for. We don’t get to pick and choose which cause protests should be seen as an acceptable means of seeking change.

For those who oppose the use of protest and disruption to raise awareness for animals, ask yourself this: if the victims being advocated for were human, would you be ok with the action? If the answer is yes, your issue is probably not about the action, but rather about the cause itself.

Thisarticle sums up this idea rather succinctly.

To my Australian readers – The animals and environment need your help this election

This March, myself and around 70 other people will be running in the New South Wales state election for the Animal Justice Party. We are confident that we can get one or possibly even two more people elected to the New South Wales government, making it two or three people in NSW parliament fighting for animals and the environment.

This is so important because no other political party has animal protection as even a minor part of their legislation, in particular farmed animals.

However, this win isn’t yet guaranteed. The unfortunate reality of elections is that we need money. Elections are expensive and the major parties spend millions. 

Every cent we raise will be spent directly on election flyers, How to Vote Cards, posters and  getting our message out there in the mainstream. We have a record number of candidates standing for the animals! 52 in the lower house and 21 in the upper house, all our candidates need our support to run their campaigns.

Each poster we have printed costs $35, every 1000 flyers we have printed will cost $250 and to get the AJP out there in mainstream media will cost tens of thousands. 

Our target of $100,000 will let us buy posters, flyers, radio and newspaper ads, and much more to get the Animal Justice Party, animals and the environment in the minds of New South Wales voters.

Please support our election fundraiser here.

* Unfortunately only people registered to vote in Australia can donate to election fundraisers. Donations of up to $1,500 are tax deductible.

Weekly election campaign update #3

My third weekly campaign update (January 21 to 27) for the 2019 NSW state election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_7ZjCaML4&t

Video on the chicken slaughterhouse vigil: https://bit.ly/2UpYaJx

Reducing emissions by food choices interview: https://bit.ly/2WqV3mu

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital vigil: https://www.facebook.com/events/373179373493889/

Follow my candidate page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelDelloiacovoAJPHeffron/

Weekly election campaign update #2

My second weekly campaign update (January 14 to 21) for the 2019 NSW state election (I just bought a new microphone and camera, so the next update on Monday will be higher quality, I promise!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAIwPsubCAk&t

Follow my candidate page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelDelloiacovoAJPHeffron/

Morality is Hard podcast – Episode 8 – Jacy Reese – The End of Animal Farming

Yesterday I was lucky enough to chat with Jacy Reese about his new book, The End of Animal Farming. You can listen to it now on Soundcloud, or it will be available on iTunes within the next 48 hours.

Jacy is co-founder and Research Director of Sentience Institute, an “effective altruism” think tank researching humanity’s moral circle. His new book, The End of Animal Farming, outlines a roadmap for humanity’s upcoming transition to an animal-free food system when we will eat real meat, dairy, and eggs without animal slaughter. He has written in outlets such as The Guardian, Vox, and National Review, and presented on these topics in over 20 countries.