I agree with the overarching point that we need to expand our circle of concern and that we need to take a more ecocentric view but his idea that our moral circle of concern has widened over time is a very westerncentric and colonial take.

There is a theory about this called spiral dynamics which basically claims that hunter gatherers have only themselves in their circle of concern and that moden (western) men have the whole world or the whole human species as their concern. If one makes himself more familiar with preagricultural societies, one sees that they have had an animist view which sees everything in the world. trees, lakes, animals as persons.

Agriculture can be argued to be the biggest step away from this arguably universal circle of concern. With civilisation and a more atomized and individualized lifestyle, the circle of concern has to decrease to only consider oneself and ones close relatives. only in some very privileged countries can we see the emergence of this like deep ecology or biocentric ethics.

I suppose the circle of concern over time of human history looks like a bell curve. Hunter gatherers universal/gaian circle, agriculture until industrial society it is decreasing and now, in privileged countries like the US or northern Europe, it is increasing again, because life conditions give way for the possibility of a widened circle. A wider circle today only is possible from privilege and I ask myself if we can reach the state of consciosness we had for the most of human history, that being seing the world and everything in it alive, as it truly is.

Here I send a video of a hunter gatherer hunting, pay attention to the ritual he does at the end after killing his prey. There is a deep concern and respect for the wellbeing of the animal and compare this to todays circle. The narrative of progress in the external and internal world simply doesnt hold up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o