Holmes Rolston presents many dilemmas in
his argument that discuss on poverty, inequality, overpopulation, human rights,
and even nature. Under poverty, Holmes argues that people worldwide engage in
luxurious activities even with people starving somewhere due to lack of food.
He, however, says that these people believe that they are justified to do so
instead of eradicating poverty. Therefore, he believes that we are not morally
mandated to eliminate poverty. In overpopulation, Holmes does not believe that
people are morally required to prevent the death and suffering of other human
beings. In his argument, he says that people choose policies that will see the
death of a certain percentage of the population. According to him, we face
three major problems which include over-consumption, overpopulation and poor
distribution of wealth (Aiken & LaFollette, 1996).
Under human right, Rolston believes that
they are not absolute and that some are weak while others are strong. In other
words, human rights can sometimes be overridden by different values. The last
and primary argument is between nature and starvation of human beings. Rolston
argues that in cases where the need to feed starving people conflicts with
protecting the environment, the later should be prioritized. Holmes argues on
eliminating of human settlement and their activity in areas that have been
classified as valuable but fragile. He argues that sometimes it is right to let
people starve to save the nature. He presents human beings as cancer that may
cause a distraction in the environment (Attfield, 1998).
I agree with Holmes only on the issue of
not being able to feed the starving humanity because if we were to focus on
poverty elimination, the civilization we are experiencing today could not have
been realized. There is enormous potential in the world’s population, and if
all this were to focus on poverty eradication, a lot would be lost. However, I
do not agree on the issue of choosing nature over human beings. Environmental
problems existed even before an increase in human activity. Human activity did
not cause the extinction of animals like the dinosaurs. They were faced out
because they were not able to evolve. Human beings are also part of the animals
and have been able to evolve hence existing for a long time. Therefore, the
need to preserve those things that can be able to adapt to change and leave
those that cannot.
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