(AGENPARL) – lun 09 gennaio 2023 Having trouble viewing this press release? [Read it online](https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6gTQXqoFtB58fI1KeAEfz1x8d3iJKycJbQ8Xb7Q6cA4-2BVsmBsG1VszbECfPcNa-2F8r4kJo6dhWH1CAT5ckKqn0R6OfvWGb3hEXwo-2BZkTdUsaD9LklEJ93AIl5ao5NtoIVdQ-3D-3DZnNa_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTBr00NpVVpbySartxD1UKxoHOcw7-2FtP4z2XQ473hvuTTSmJJW37KAf7au53Fg0v7ZMTEXOsx-2FdA8Y06ikbY9A5mmWzkkJ5jQVT-2FwmOHlAilqxgmuEhnzjsDW4JTZcJVB1yV5cqe-2FiqkTtlCPMRaDx9sWaawfbgsRWFWcgq7qmoyvjbowFR4efnv2QCW1dsu43g-3D-3D).
https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6gTQXqoFtB58fI1KeAEfz1x8d3iJKycJbQ8Xb7Q6cA4-2BVsmBsG1VszbECfPcNa-2F8r4kJo6dhWH1CAT5ckKqn0R6OfvWGb3hEXwo-2BZkTdUsaD9LklEJ93AIl5ao5NtoIVdQ-3D-3DyXim_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTOEkKhx3vjEUvByeJexqVe7u1pyyphZa2Uwcrvj9F5gxZdraON2pYHECfI-2FBqFg3sAEy25VawVUx5jZgX1SJIGzy-2FCyC-2Bf-2Fta4eKbLS6WB-2B8TY6xlIvNmchOWCGYMrki4KPG4gfZD8hcqhU0PnnQSY61sCzxPwlJXWDYCa7pyzZ-2BJQ8gUMtW-2F4FN8qWF1jXVlw-3D-3D
For immediate release
[Speciesism, like racism, imperils humanity and the planet](https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6gTQXqoFtB58fI1KeAEfz1x8d3iJKycJbQ8Xb7Q6cA4-2BVsmBsG1VszbECfPcNa-2F8r4kJo6dhWH1CAT5ckKqn0R6OfvWGb3hEXwo-2BZkTdUsaD9LklEJ93AIl5ao5NtoIVdQ-3D-3D69Mn_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTPdouelTxctV-2FD1JkX8m5dyZVte9-2FsxE2Gg8wyLpK6XnhJ63bXLmmhvNHmGPvTCkrdqapnNVVxJ-2F3ddNMj-2FPcuxrrPggNsTsdKkwqrrF-2BWuw52uIKCSC-2FalZuxnH033aR-2BGSRGTrmW5uGjz4ujwZpc0NWlfjP4KGKxqfBZTQJntv8KRyEeuFY5eoLS0BoZnKCw-3D-3D)
January 9, 2023
https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6gTQXqoFtB58fI1KeAEfz1x8d3iJKycJbQ8Xb7Q6cA4-2BVsmBsG1VszbECfPcNa-2F8r4kJo6dhWH1CAT5ckKqn0R6OfvWGb3hEXwo-2BZkTdUsaD9LklEJ93AIl5ao5NtoIVdQ-3D-3D2e3b_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTFF-2FkIJ-2F1AHg6I-2FdDezVMuSW6u9jk-2FpMgeTwLjCW4uYY6Au-2FaQjjXrjB-2Fne4No-2BAkIo5dThfq1Qp8SC7a-2B0-2FwGCgOfASwYbKSdeOBqnWwlkNRhkwOdc0bxquHXtszYAuM8TzCZWgDWTNE95L4ycGMl-2F6Po-2FlZdAp1gQlCw6AqfYNFm94MnWbOM-2FpMC-2Bp3TUm1w-3D-3DSpeciesism places Homo sapiens at the top of a hierarchy that is often used to justify sacrificing other animals, plants, fungi and microbes for the benefit of humanity. A different perspective is needed to ensure the survival of Earth’s ecosystem and ultimately humans themselves, a new book argues.
Berkeley — With the world’s population topping 8 billion last year, it’s clear that humans have achieved a unique status in Earth’s history. We are the only creature that dominate all other organisms on the planet, from animals and fungi to plants and microbes.
It remains to be seen whether humans can retain this dominance as we push the global climate to extremes while driving to extinction the very organisms that we climbed over to get to the top.
In a new book, a group of scientists and philosophers places part of the blame on an attitude prevalent among scientists and the general public — the false belief that species are uniquely real, and that some species are superior to others.
To the researchers, this is analogous to racism — the fallacious belief that races exist as branches on the tree of life, and that some races are superior to others.
““People these days are very conscious of how evil it is for one group of people to think that they’re superior to another race, and yet the same people who are very woke about that are perfectly happy to say, well, humans are in charge of everything, so the rest of the world is ours to use as we see fit,” said [Brent Mishler](https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6sfdD9mT9mqqRrAb0c0-2F96jtRJTs8btr9a8eAP8FMHgBA69NAlNKfb40YVO1Sntm4A-3D-3DW7LL_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTJbKAPl4r9-2FOjlonTnH-2Fo9ulQHMf0ULrXGgBDEcGvfD8HnEMfrCLpGTXbCEQ9o7-2FY-2FfEYFUBPC9dyaHaza6691pxbas6L67FsuOMLU5VWEVMsfDtUd3jTAud0rAWigiLrtHpCVKKB2XoeE-2FNK6BBhhe-2B-2BJnWzY6kNr-2FmJM-2BB2P8PQRnQto8pkZymODZi0NoRbg-3D-3D), professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-editor and co-author of the book with UC Berkeley Ph.D. recipient and former postdoctoral fellow Brian Swartz.
“The two precepts — that species are uniquely real and that one or more are superior to others — cascade into how humans see themselves and how we behave on this planet,” said Swartz, who is also affiliated with the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere at Stanford University. “Our cultural and biological manifestations flow from this worldview and snowball to affect how we interact with other forms of life, the physical world and other people.”
In the new book, Swartz, Mishler and nine other contributors argue that speciesism — the belief that species are real and that humans are the superior species — “leads to behavior that challenges our future on this planet.”
They instead urge humans to remove themselves from their pedestal and treat all creatures as they would members of the human family by valuing and protecting their lives and habitats.
“The way I put it to my students is that it’s like we’re a huge, diverse family living in the same house, which is Earth, and we need to get along. Not just the human family. We’re talking about everything — plants, animals and bacteria. What one does stresses another,” said Mishler, an evolutionary biologist who is director of the [University and Jepson Herbaria](https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6sfdD9mT9mqqRrAb0c0-2F96gQg3mb-2FaLdWoDHUBYKURbuq9C6_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTDiJn28CsvNxzAGir8l8GGyY4cUHzNO4prn5WDDUyoLkrJ-2FAGRnHnFCw-2BFsYgD4Pu1cFDQR5iu17-2BeClrhIKc5meXWcYHaqoaNCtYzVN-2FSrCi8xfDvk5CWfjqOcZno6A1Tud5ubB3vA9q0rao9QHA4Au9-2B0JzbB41KvoMOba3RP5DuuKqVW1YhLfGNF6fT0frw-3D-3D) at UC Berkeley. “We’re not arguing that humans are not important. We’re just saying they’re only one of many of the life forms at the tips of the tree of life.”
The book, [Speciesism in Biology and Culture: How Human Exceptionalism is Pushing Planetary Boundaries,](https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6rCkOoA8NNh3pz7J-2Fm2f-2F5LrV-2F8qbBihYqT5aDF-2FiQdDraF8lqr-2BYBx8-2BZOsee-2FqJA-3D-3DNSfq_mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTKfzCwVKmdzrl2NlscUaPKKUi0IAhiJKYAivMtXpqpGU1U2M65LiDUhraxykitKKohX3uTTq1ME8wi0qYA8qvIEENy74FGkEtLBwJas2UsYPfOEknDGZcxPEhiE5NU5y2UjiPp-2B7Loqugb41wSSvZPKsO4Uko4Y71mslsmBMmHlGJPZrKejTE5mxskStnRbLBw-3D-3D)was published this month as an open access eBook by Springer, an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Dominionism
The attitude that humans are at the top of the heap has been with us for millennia. In the Bible, God urges man in Genesis to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
In one of the new book’s chapters, “Species, God, and Dominion,” philosopher of science John Wilkins of the University of Melbourne in Australia argues that the concept of species derives from religion and philosophy, not from any empirical or scientific need. As such, it remains politically important for the religious movement known as dominionism and ultimately impacts environmentalist and conservation politics in the United States and worldwide.
“Having a ‘theoretical’ notion of species is inimical to science and polity,” Wilkins wrote. “It is not needed, as it retains much of its original essentialistic religious origins and emphasizes human exceptionalism to the detriment of ecological stewardship.”
Though dominionism is only one interpretation of the Bible, the concept became codified when Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, considered the father of modern taxonomy, and others established a hierarchy or ranking system of life on Earth, with species as the smallest grouping. He lumped species into larger and larger units — genus, family, order, class and kingdom — based on shared physical characteristics. Humans — Homo sapiens in Linnaeus’s binomial system, grouped within the hominid family, primate order, mammalian class and animal kingdom — were presumed the pinnacle of God’s creation within a ladder-like scale of nature, what the ancient Greeks called a scala naturae.
Charles Darwin arguably took God out of the equation, as well as the ladder. The hierarchy evolved into the tree of life, where the tips of each twig represent a living creature and the branches that support them represent extinct ancestors — lineages that descend from common ancestors shared by all life on Earth.
Mishler has argued for decades against considering individual species as the most important grouping, particularly when discussing conservation. He laid out his arguments in a 2021 book, [What, If Anything, Are Species?](https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6ghWsEfGlbRmNUMhc4o19rwRUe0FsbA5usTGvIZbbvkfbjNotP5RK4Mza9-2BXW2uxnCC5uAHw1ZEWvBdC9uhvsNdjm-2FoeLu78xu4sf1VwBvpNcNhl4prV8WNXaOE1ChoJdA-3D-3Dtc2__mLoYh0p4AWg4foFr5HgrZ1QioQ33bLwdnQ-2BsYGKFX9mv8wVBOgi5GpVq-2FNhlrfTl-2BTI61oGMQNfTGLPKQc-2F-2BKWIb2uEidh5Cy9Snrxt2Kvdg46NMTv1EBYVNMuj4LXg-2F7ntWlgAYmLu0DVwSXN-2BhOypHqc7fZqv2Sp0a5eOBWuUihLOoEWItsAY-2Bar9HoxbaMnJXhXFouPCsX79lRDvLTPnttj-2B5qwJtSM7weU-2F7v6CQoGVjO11TNMviU846g1xZALzj3B7Zn-2Bb0C3QM281PrRT5ewoI3YDfQI4tSPaCP3IvFEdb6xoQTyOoaC3T4GN5NLHvM6oi1p7faBCrxccKGMc4amWRTyD7JhBUvg7O980Ad7ixsj5M-2BhEhkfUW1oIyhGa8LXdWSiPoPLYBjvqOWA-3D-3D)(CRC Press), in which he proposed getting rid of taxonomic rankings altogether, including the binomial system for naming species that is used universally today.
One key reason is that species distinctions are not equivalent across all branches on the tree of life. Bacteria that look identical may vary as much genetically as a dog from a cat, while some birds that live in totally different areas and look different can be nearly identical genetically. On the other hand, lineages — the sequence of organisms that have evolved from one another over millions of years — are consistent across all forms of life.
“Evidence shows that a species of amoeba does not mean the same thing as a species of fungus, animal or anything,” Swartz said. “And if species are not uniquely real, then where does that leave us? Is there anything that means the same thing across the tree of life? The answer to that question is: lineages. These are branches on the tree of life that maintain genealogical connections across time and space. They include children, or descendants, and their parents, or ancestors, on through animals broadly and their distant relatives. Lineages are branches across the tree of life.”
Throwing out the concept of species would eliminate the artificial dividing line that helps justify the belief that some species are more important. Instead, the authors maintain that humans are just one part of a genealogy connecting all living things. This interconnectedness forms an ecological web that sustains the planet and us, and that deserves to be protected equally with humans.
“Every living thing is related to every other living thing. The only issue is: How far back do you have to go until you hit a common ancestor?” Mishler said. “Humans are certainly important, but we’re just one of millions of these lineages, all of which have equal importance. We should at least be mindful of when we have to destroy some of the lineages — that is, eat other living things — in order to live.”
Mishler goes one step further, arguing that lineages should be respected — not for how they can benefit humans, but intrinsically, as part of the web of life. He detests the term “ecosystem services,” which implies that the natural world exists to service humanity.
“Healthy ecosystems benefit everybody, from humans to any other lineage connected to them,” Swartz noted.
Sex: too much or too little
The authors point out that the standard definition of a species is a population that cannot breed with closely related populations. But Mishler said this definition is muddied by the fact that there is often wide variation within a breeding population; sometimes two separate species can and do successfully interbreed, and some species don’t breed at all.
“Alan Templeton summarized it most succinctly: The trouble with species is too little sex and too much sex,” he said. “There are asexual groups that don’t do sex at all, but still have lineages. And then there are plants, like the orchid, which can just about be crossed with every other orchid, yet they’re bizarrely different from each other. So, reproductive compatibility, while a nice idea, just doesn’t work empirically.”
Species also can evolve because they get separated geographically or ecologically, not because of an inability to breed.