Freeman, Carrie P. (2020). The human animal earthling identity:
Shared values unifying human rights, animal rights, and environmental movements. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
“In an era of globalization, climate crisis, mass extinction, and widespread injustice, Freeman’s lofty goal is unifying social movements across causes to gain needed strength and influence in their work against common powerful forces that undermine or exploit living beings. To serve as everyday allies, social movements should foster universal altruism – encouraging each of us to widen our sphere of moral concern (not only to include all human groups but also all species), by considering other animals and nature as part of our ‘in-group.'”
Share our home planet. Support life. Take care. Play fair.
That’s the Human Animal Earthling’s slogan (p. 88) you can put on your bike.
“To formulate the basis for a needed identity shift toward seeing ourselves more inclusively as ‘human animal earthlings,’ Freeman shares insights from interviewing leading global activists and identifies overlapping values common in the campaigns of 16 international social movement organizations that work on human rights, nonhuman animal protection, and/or environmental issues, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, PETA, WWF, and the Nature Conservancy. Freeman ultimately recommends a set of universal values (supporting life, fairness, responsibility, and unity) around which all social movements’ campaign messages can collectively cultivate respectful relations between us “human animal earthlings,” other animals, and the natural world we share.”
The values highlighted are: empathize, respect, and co-exist. That sounds a lot like intercultural dialogue, so this book may well be of interest to followers of this site.
Named “Book Most Likely to Save the Planet” in the IPPY Awards 2020.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 