wise use of mires and peatlands - Peatland Ecology Research Group

94 VALUES AND FUCTIONS OF MIRES AND PEATLANDS●●violated, in the interests of decreasing thesuffering of human beings who suffer whennon-human beings are violated (thesentimental argument);acting as though they also have intrinsic value,to avoid the possibility that some people willtreat human beings in the same way as nonhumanbeings are sometimes treated - thepsychological prudential argument. (“Peoplewho delight in the suffering and destruction ofinferior creatures, will not … be verycompassionate, or benign, to those of theirown kind.” John Locke, 1693).considering them together with human beings,as interdependent and inseparable parts ofecosystems (the ecological argument) (Watson1979).21Similar concepts include the “balance of nature”,“nature knows best”, and “Gaia” inenvironmentalism, and the free market ideologyin political economy.22See also §4.9.23Example: Conferring intrinsic moral value ongreat apes (the “easiest” non-anthropocentricposition, because these animals are self-consciousand able to think abstractly) implies that theirnatural habitats must be taken into moralconsideration, e.g. the orang-utan mires inSoutheast Asia. This is not because these rarespecies have an instrumental (e.g. informational)value for human beings, but because the individualapes have intrinsic value, in the same way ashuman rights have to be respected, not becauseHomo sapiens is a rare species, but becauseindividual human beings have intrinsic value.24Cf. Norton 1991.25De Groot 1992, Naveh 1994.26Resources which can be divided betweenindividuals.27Resources which are common to all and cannotbe divided between individuals.28Jointly called “informational functions” by DeGroot 1992. To a large extent, these valuesinclude what some philosophers call“eudaimonistic values” (after ευδαιμονιαeudaimonia) = Greek “good life”) that generallyenrich life and that are experienced as “good inthemselves” (Seel 1991).29Some examples: We enjoy company (socialamenityvalues) because during human evolutionco-operation (and therewith its direct individualdriving force: the pleasure in social contact) hasbeen more effective for survival and propagationthan individualism (Callicott 1988, Diamond1991, Maynard Smith & Szathmáry 1995).Similarly lying in the sun (recreation values) isenjoyable, as it enables our skin to produce theindispensable vitamin D. We like outdoorexperiences because of the resulting stressmitigation (Hartig et al. 1991, Kellert 1993).Aesthetics can be seen as a rapid and integratedordering and evaluation of a complex set ofproperties (Berlyne 1971, Kellert 1997). Ourpredisposition to see beauty in savannah-likelandscapes, sunsets, quiet waters, and containedfires goes back to the human past as huntergatherers,when these experiences were associatedwith food and water availability, safety, andsecurity (Ulrich 1993, Heerwagen & Orians 1993,White & Heerwagen 1998). In the same way,human beings are genetically averse to snakes (afear and fascination we share with African andAsian monkeys and apes), dogs, spiders, enclosedspaces, running water, blood, and heights (Ulrich1993). We are quick to develop fear and evenphobias with very little negative reinforcement(Öhman 1986). Few modern artefacts are aseffective - even those most dangerous, such asguns, knives, automobiles, and electric wires(McNally 1987, Wilson 1993, Kellert 1997). Ourerotic preferences instinctively focus - via subtleolfactory sensations (smells)- on people withcomplementary immune systems (Wedekind etal. 1995, Wedekind & Furi 1997, Cutler 1999).We like salt and fat because in our pre-humansavannah past it was beneficial to swallow thefull supply of these rare goods whenever theywere available (Shepard 1998). Bodily symmetryand beauty seems to indicate health (Cf. Manninget al. 1999, Scheib et al. 1999, Thornill &Grammer 1999). Flowers signal future availabilityof fruits and honey (being the evolutionarybackground to giving flowers to sick people andhosts, Heerwagen & Orians 1993), animalsscanning the countryside or a startled expressionon a person’s face alert to dangers (Heerwagen &Orians 1993, Darwin 1998) (signalisation values).30An unlimited consumption of sun and fat forexample may lead to skin cancer and cardiacdiseases.31Symbolisation values might be considered the “selfconscious”offshoots of indicator values; spiritual,existence, and history values as the offshoots ofsocial and amenity values; cognition values asthose of aesthetic values.32In contrast to proxy functions, identity functionsare not only “consumed” but also to some extent“produced” by human beings themselves (“identification“). Our “world-views” not only rest on“objective” observations, but also on subjectiveinterpretations and projections. This applies forexample for history (cf. Walsh 1967, Harmsen1968, Marwick 1989), science (cf. Popper 1959,Kuhn 1984, Bartels 1987), and spirituality andreligion (Midgley 1996, Wilson 1998, cf.Xenophanes 6th century BC in Fairbanks 1898:“But mortals suppose that the gods are born (asthey themselves are), and that they wear man’sclothing and have human voice and body. But ifcattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with theirhands and produce works of art as men do, theywould paint their gods and give them bodies inform like their own - horses like horses, cattlelike cattle.”).33Based on information from Timo Nyronen.34Joosten 2001.35Xuehui & Yan 1994.36Based on information from Piotr Ilnicki. Cf. alsoLishtvan 1996.37From Sirin & Minaeva 2001. This Figure includes