“Three Preconditions for Helping Wild Animals at Scale” by William McAuliffe, Rethink Priorities

 Executive Summary A theory of change specifies how a social movement will achieve the change it desires. The theory first posits preconditions that are necessary for meeting its goals. It then explains how the movement's activities help meet the preconditions. This report lays out the preconditions for the wild animal welfare movement to help wild animals at scale.  The movement's main goal is to promote the interests of individual nonhuman animals not under the direct control of humans as ends in themselves.   The movement's fundamental normative assumption is that speciesism is ethically unjustifiable.  The fundamental empirical assumption is that wild animals face a number of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic threats. Humans already have the ability to help some wild animals with some problems. But three preconditions must be developed in order to help a substantial fraction of wild animals with the conditions have the biggest negative impact on their welfare: Valid [...] ---Outline:(00:06) Executive Summary(01:40) Who Should Read This Report(03:07) A Primer on Wild Animal Welfare(03:12) Defining Wild Animal Welfare(04:32) The Case for Prioritizing Wild Animal Welfare(11:59) Preconditions For the Movement to Succeed(12:44) Valid Measurement(14:54) Sentience(19:01) Measures of Welfare(21:43) Quality of Life(25:09) Ecosystem Dynamics(29:43) Technical Ability(30:33) Effective(31:25) Scalable(32:08) Selective(33:40) Reversible(34:59) Stakeholder Buy-in(36:22) Causes for Concern(41:05) Strategies for Increasing Buy-in(42:52) Conclusion(44:21) AcknowledgmentsThe original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: June 12th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5cdyJDGDqkjPE293E/three-preconditions-for-helping-wild-animals-at-scale --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.