system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is it wrong to take a walk in the woods, since it's almost inevitable that I will step on an insect?

I'm aware that the question is a little ridiculous, but it's been stuck in my head for quite some time, I don't know the answer, and it's draining me. I enjoy taking a hike in the woods, but there's almost a guarantee that I will trample at least one insect to death unintentionally. Should I therefore not take a walk in the woods? Should I feel bad?
gpt
Jeffrey Lockwood, an Entomologist, argued for the following "minimum ethic" in his paper *The Moral Standing of Insects and the Ethics of Extinction*:

>We ought to refrain from actions which may be reasonably expected to kill or cause nontrivial pain in insects when avoiding these actions has no, or only trivial, costs to our own welfare.

By this definition, hiking may or may not be justifiable depending on how important it is to one's "welfare". Presumably, the justifiability of this action also increases if one acts to avoid killing insects while hiking, such as watching one's steps more carefully.