What do you think?

  • How has public opinion influenced scientific research?
  • Do you think it's wrong to anthropomorphize wildlife?
  • How do we advance our ideals – for hunting or for animal welfare – if they differ from those who have, for so long, been denied the right to self-determination?
  • If national or international decisions are increasingly made at the local or Indigenous territorial level, how can the broader population have a say? And how should the science factor into decisions?
  • What happens when different scientific values and models clash? Can we disagree without being disagreeable? How do we find a way forward?
  • Is it possible to achieve the scientifically-rigorous goals we must meet for biodiversity and meaningfully advance truth and reconciliation? And is it possible to accomplish both of those goals and heal the urban-rural divide that threatens our very democracy?

Task

Get together in small groups and answer the following:

  • How do we balance biodiversity and the economy, with the rights and values of different cultures? What should we do when different cultural values clash? How should we reconcile science and economics, ethics and resources, minority and majority will?

Terms & Concepts

  • Anthropomorphism
  • Time Immemorial
  • Colonialism
  • Traditional Knowledge
  • Self Determination
  • Natural Inheritance
  • Traditional Territories
  • Truth and Reconciliation
  • Social Justice

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Referenced Resources