Environmental Ethics and Productivity of Animals

Today, attention to animal rights has a special place, and one of the famous moral philosophers who pay special attention to animal rights is Peter Singer. He has raised several reasons for the wrongness of human use of animals, including the argument of speciesism and the wrongness of inflicting pain and suffering on animals. In addition to these two arguments, he has paid close attention to the relationship between excessive use of animals and environmental destruction. Today, a significant share of environmental destruction is caused by industrial livestock farms, which, by producing meat, destroy plant resources, emit greenhouse gases, and damage nature. Singer considers the situation caused by the way humans treat animals and considers it related to religious teachings about humans and animals. Considering meat-eating as immoral and rejecting religion's opinion on this, he suggests vegetarianism to preserve the environment. In this article, while examining and criticizing this argument, it is clear that the most important factor of environmental destruction is excessive and undesirable use of animals by humans. The problem of the environment can be solved by modifying the attitude of man towards the environment and how to organize his use of nature, which is also emphasized by religion. If the human use of the environment, of which the animal is a part, is done in a purposeful and responsible manner, it will not only cause the destruction of the environment, but it will also lead to its better preservation and, as a result, respect for the animal's rights. The need to emphasize the reform of the structure instead of banning consumption, paying attention to the harms of vegetarianism, and the need to properly understand the opinion of religion, especially Islam, are among the criticisms that can be made to Singer.