As we emerged from the slime all those many moons ago, we inhabited a much more than human world. However, during these past 200 years as we have entered the anthropocene, we have come to inhabit an increasingly human world as we cause the much more than human world to become much less than it was.
As The Guardian Australia announced this week that Australia has quietly put 49 species on the endangered list, the business as usual way of human life hardly seems like an appropriate response.
As the biological others we share this planet with continue to cede space for us, these spaces become uncontested, colonised, human-centred and controlled spaces and places.
This shark has unfortunately found itself in a contested space.
This is often the result for sharks who find themselves in the contested zone.
This is an uncontested space. It is human-controlled and centred.
Sharks seemingly cannot win as we continue to cede nothing. Their options are lethal nets, hooks, guns or tonic immobility. The absence of any form of human kindness in these contested and uncontested spaces is troubling. Only by actively engaging in kindness and entangled empathy can we hope to save sharks from extinction.
Sandra Laight.com 