Czy polowania w dzisiejszym świecie mają rację bytu?

Piotr Skubała Uniwersytet Śląski, KatowiceWydział Biologii i Ochrony Środowiska Abstract Do we need hunting in today’s world? The impact of human activities on the planet has accelerated the loss of species and ecosystems to a level comparable to a sixth mass extinction, the first driven by a living species. The Living Planet Index, which measures biodiversity abundance levels, was reduced by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012. Humans have already driven at least four of nine Earth system processes beyond their safe boundaries. Hunting has lost its original function (source of food and survival of people). However, hunters invoke various arguments, including ecological and ethical ones, for the maintenance of hunting. Scientific research, however, contradicts them, for example modern hunting is blamed for the disruption of natural mechanisms regulating the size of game populations. The answer to the arguments of hunting ethics is contemporary environmental ethics, in which the fundamental value is respect for life, for every form of existence. Recent research shows that overexploitation of the environment, including hunting and fishing, has the greatest negative impact on biodiversity. Keywords:Hunting, sixth extinction, thresholds, number regulation, hunting and environmental ethics