He demands a radical reimagining of our responsibilities as a society and argues again human exceptionalism.

Any environmental issues struggle to be heard in a political landscape driven by economic messaging.

We are undergoing a major extinction event, and we have almost no idea how many species we’re losing.

Science, common sense—and, for many people, spirituality—clearly show that life on Earth is a tightly interconnected menagerie of all sorts of beings. Yet, because humans far too often claim that they are not part of this interconnected web and superior to other beings, things often go destructively awry.

But things don't have to be this way, and for this and other reasons, I was pleased to learn of Dr. Michael S. Caterino's new book Under One Canopy: Environmental Ethics and the Tree of Life, in which he challenges readers to acknowledge their kinship with nonhuman life and demands a radical reimagining of our responsibilities as a society to other species and our magnificent, fragile planet. Here's what he had to say about this forward-looking and most important book.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Under One Canopy?

Michael Caterino: There are so many reasons! At a personal level, I am alarmed at the large-scale erasure of wild places from the world. Thinking about the world my grandchildren will inherit is frankly depressing. Our society seems determined to deny any limits or restrictions on growth and consumption, and that is so obviously wrong-headed that I felt compelled to do something.

Why this particular book? In conservation, one of the chief questions is why should we conserve biodiversity? These days it feels like most answers revolve around the value of nature to sustaining people. It is certainly true that we depend on biodiversity for what we eat, breathe, and build with. But the idea that nature might have its own intrinsic value seems to have little popular resonance.

This is........

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