Abstract

The things that matter most to us are usually those that have some deep meaning and special connection to us. Either because we find them beautiful, because they bring back good memories, or simply because they are things, whose existence we cherish (even if cannot fully explain why). There are also those things that are needed to live and therefore, we value more than any other. Water, food and air are good examples of these things. They are natural resources intrinsically necessary to sustain life and to which all humans want to have access. However, this may not be the only reason why these resources are valuable or worthy of respect. In this paper, I shall defend the view that certain natural resources can be considered valuable not only because they are life-sustaining resources or because they bring direct and countable benefits to people. The ‘integrity’ of these resources, from which many goods and services are derived, can be considered valuable regardless of how necessary it is to sustain human life. Based on this idea, it is expected to question those forms of access and use of natural resources that are beneficial to humans, but that cause serious damage to the environment or that fail to respect the life of other non-human living beings.