Mildly Interesting

I'll counter your trees with my humans. Would you agree that skinning children to make drums would be "needlessly cruel"? The creator might have thought that it was necessary for whatever reason, but neither the children nor any sane observer would agree. It's fine to disagree on what's moral and what's not, and it's up to the invidual to decide for themselves. I think killing turtles for vanity project is cruel, especially since you have all those trees that just deserve to be carved up for being so tall. I believe there is some common ground most interested parties can agree on. And if not, then the situation is probably quite complicated and you should rethink making those drums.

Wind turbines

If it hadn't used mother of pearl and tortoiseshell, which weren't particularly rare at the time, they would have used things like rosewood, ebony, and ivory. So either way, precious materials were going to be used.

At least they are being used in the service of Art, and Music, instead of something vain, or selfish, like jewelry or beauty accessories. If these materials are going to be harvested anyway, using them to create a fine musical instrument, which can then be used to create beautiful music for a century, or possibly longer, is a worthy use of those precious natural materials.

I do think that there are layers to the corruption in play here. It'd be plenty evil even if it sounded good and looked bad, since cruelty and stuff. Pianos are expensive, and were even more back in 1853, so having and playing one was a hobby limited to elites, which had to exploit the work of the poor to afford it and the rest of their luxurious lifestyle, which makes it worse again. Due to it being one of the possible symbols of the class status, it's very ownership rather than a function became a priority, which then made it a piece of visual art to be admired rather than the tool to create such art, which degenerated the meaning of such expense even further. The author most likely wasn't thinking about the cruelty, about the class or about the demeaning the art, or maybe they were and it was the point. Either way, the result is something beautiful that shouldn't have ever existed, and the "incredible poetic" characteristic that I mentioned earlier (maybe a bit of an overstatement) referred in part to this contradiction.

Critical Thinking, huh? Let's apply some critical thinking to the comment you responded to:

I sincerely doubt that tortoises were killed for their shells. Their skeleton was a waste product in a sense.

In the first sentence, the author expresses doubt that, contemporaneous with manufacture of this piano, Testudines would have been hunted for their shells. In the second sentence, the author provides additional context, asserting that the skeleton could be considered a waste product by those hunting turtles and tortoises.

1. Is the author implying that Testudines were hunted for sport, or for the purpose of gathering another resource?

2. The shells of turtles and tortoises are components of their skeletons. When the author claims skeletons were waste products, do they imply that shells were commonly discarded?

3. If the author is correct, and Testudines were hunted as a resource but the skeleton was not the target, what resource was most likely to have been sought after?

4. Do the author's claims contraindicate poaching, i.e. that hunting Testudines was a legally sanctioned activity during and/or before 1853?

Homework:

1. Verifying the author's claims: were turtles and tortoises legally hunted in the mid-19th Century, and what were the most common commercial and/or industrial applications of each part of their carcasses? Was it common to discard the skeletons?

2. Was turtle and tortoise meat eaten more commonly in the past?

3. Do you think attitudes toward wastefulness and conservation in the gathering of marine resources have changed since the 1850s? Why or why not?

4. What topic or topics would offer the best starting point when asking your librarian for reference materials?
   (A) Musical instruments
   (B) Marine biology
   (C) Commercial fishing
   (D) Ornamental furniture

Please have this on my desk by tomorrow morning for full credit.

Back then loads of turtles were hunted for meat. I.e. you would have a large supply without hunting for it explicitly.

Holy shit! That thing is a monster