You emphasise the need for an improvement in the quality of human life but have little to say about animal welfare. Why is this?
Humans are mammals and therefore part of animal life. The quality of human life is also intimately connected with the well-being of other animals: according the United National Global Environment Report of May 2002, about a quarter of the world’s species of mammals are threatened with extinction within 30 years – as a result of human activities. While the disappearance of a few species may not make much difference (setting aside the moral case for sustaining other species), the elimination certain species can disrupt important ecological processes and a mass extinction of animal and plant species would destroy human life. All animal and plant life form part of the complex ecological life-support system that sustains humans.
