Expanded definition of family might help - The Moral Economy

IN THE last months I’ve taken two trips that made me think about extinction: one to Dogpound Creek, Alta., and the other to Chennai, India.

The Dogpound trip was a family reunion held near the site of the original Harder homestead. Like most reunions, it was sobering and exciting. Sobering, because my parents’ generation is almost gone. And my own is starting to look like a collection of bionic men and women (minus the super-speed, unfortunately) as we replace failing body parts at an alarming rate.

It was exciting because a whole new generation of youngsters has sprouted up. They look vigorous enough to carry the Harders well into the next century.

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The trip to India was exciting too. Indian culture is vibrant. The churches are passionately engaged in helping their communities grow strong.

But one day we went to a beach on the Bay of Bengal. It wasn’t like any ocean beach I’d ever been on. Besides humans there wasn’t a single living thing visible – no birds, no shells, no seaweed.

Apparently large rivers discharge vast amounts of pollutants into the bay, including high concentrations of pesticides and industrial waste. Offshore oil and gas exploration and seabed mining also contribute to the destruction of sea life.

It was sobering to see the impact we can have on other forms of life.

As a species, we humans are doing well numerically – 5.7 billion and growing. From a family perspective, I can’t help but celebrate that.

I love my family. I think they’re great folks. A bit odd, but funny, compassionate, hard-working. In my opinion, the world is better off with more of them.

However, we humans have had a pretty depressing impact on our neighbours.

By draining wetlands, plowing prairies, logging forests, paving and building, we are altering the landscape on an unprecedented scale. Some living things do well under the conditions we’ve created: urban pigeons, Canada geese, zebra mussels and leafy spurge, for example.

They handle a broad range of habitats and reproduce rapidly. However, most creatures can’t.

Obviously it’s not easy to do an adequate count of the world’s animals, fish, plants and microbes.

Still, scientists agree that the extinction rate has increased dramatically.

The fossil record suggests that, apart from catastrophic meteorite collisions, about one species in a million used to go extinct each year.

Now, just among mammals, that rate is 45 times higher and over all life forms it may be 540 times what it used to be.

I’d like to leave a healthy planet for my great-grandchildren to inherit.

So I’m thinking I should expand my definition of “family” to include the other living things that I share space with.

At the Harder reunion, we paid attention to each other’s health and noted the changes in our numbers. We made allowance for the young and old and injured that needed special care.

Perhaps it’s time to do the same for the non-human members of our extended family.

Cam Harder is associate professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon.