Life is supported on this planet by only a thin layer of atmosphere near the earths surface. The increase in lung cancer, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases has heightened at an alarming rate, and many ecologists point to the toxic atmosphere as a big factor in this rise. The destruction of millions of trees has not only caused erosion but cut off a tremendous oxygen supply in our communities. The use of chemical insecticides such as DDT has already spread poisons and destroyed wild life which has affected the balance of nature on land, water, and in the air. The application of the principle of Reverence for Life could be the corrective force for preserving and maintaining the balance of nature.
True ethics involves the quest to preserve everything which wills to live.
According to Schweitzer, if man is to utilize the intelligence which he claims has placed him at the highest scale of life, then his rational thought must necessarily lead him to affirm the principle of the sacredness of life. The next logical step would be to cease doing anything to the air, water, land, or any form of life which would 9 Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought , p. 126. Ibid ., p. 182. 344 - Schweitzer's Reverence For Life seek to destroy it. Man would have to stop polluting his world as a logical outcome of the ethical principle of reverence for all life.