Throughout chapter 1, we encountered a persistent setback for green Buddhism, namely,
that only nirvana seems to be intrinsically valued on the Buddhist worldview. It is true
that, to the extent that living beings are loved and shown compassion, one could say that
they are valued in this way. Yet, even so, it is not clear that tigers, for instance, are valued
for what they are, or that their welfare is desired for its own sake, and conservation of the
tiger species cannot be regarded as a final aim. The ultimate and only legitimate goal in
Buddhism, it seems, and the only type of well-being worth seeking, has to include
liberation from saṃsāra. Until we have a clearer picture of what this involves, and until
we can say with certainty that it is not antithetical to ordinary existence, it seems that the
issue of the environment can only be regarded as peripheral to Buddhism, at best (Habito
2007, 133).