Editorial January 25, 1999 Issue

Wildlife and Love's demands

Margaret Rogers

With all the pressing needs facing humankind, preserving wildlife habitat sometimes feels like a second-tier problem. But there's a growing recognition that ensuring biodiversity should be a top priority, and not just because of its relation to maintaining the quality of life. At an interdisciplinary conference at Harvard University last autumn, philosophy professor Tu Weiming pointed to a deeper reason: "Anything we do to nature," he said, "reflects our inner self" (The Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 1, 1998, p. B3).

"Dominion" over the earth doesn't mean disregarding the needs of other creatures.

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