I had a related experience to the concept of 'is ethics situational' and how this subject can get out of hand quickly this past year. A team of 16 or so medical people go to Belize each year and hike into the back jungles to hold clinics. During the 15 years of these trips we have always tried to be environmentally friendly, carrying out trash and being careful to leave the place as we found it or better. The first several years we also watched carefully what we all used to bathe with in the rivers (only ivory or other biodegradable soaps to protect the water). This year, some of the student nurses with us were using other soaps that we had not checked on as yet (we later checked and found that they were biodegradable) when some hiker walked up and accused the students in the presence of the leaders of using non-biodegradable soaps. It of course offended everyone that we, the pinnacle of 'greeness' could be so accused, and a pretty nasty argument ensued, both the group and th! ! ! ! ! ! ! is 'envioro nazi' (as we liked to refer to her) argued about how green each other was. After she left the area, we later found out the students were using the correct soap, but by that time it was clear how such accusations can be risen to depending on how they are framed. This 'green' protector launched into a very aggressive, mean spirited attack against the students and the group leaders which brought out the worst in all of us. Anyway, I suspect this is at the heart of why this discussion about politically correct and environmentally sensitive whale treatment triggers a good deal of response. Most of us have cut corners in this area, leaving such a discussion impacting particularly sensitive parts of our psyche and raising our defensive postures. I will admit that given the choice of getting closer to whales or not, I would have a hard time resisting, even to the point of paying fines or going to jail. It seems so incredible to be so close to such an animal. We all knew as children not to feed the animals in the zoo, but we also know how irresistable the concept is. Enjoying the discussion. Bruce McNellie Nacogdoches, Texas On Tue, 24 Oct 2000 06:59:14 Outfit3029 wrote: >In a message dated 10/24/00 7:31:30 AM !!!First Boot!!!, >revkayak_at_ptialaska.net writes: > ><< Seems my orginal post on whales has resulted in considerable discussion on >the > ethics of observing whale and other wildlife. >> >snip *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Oct 24 2000 - 08:07:59 PDT
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