Environmental Ethical Issues free essay sample

Environmental Ethical Issues Introduction to Ethics Social Responsibility April 1, 2010 Environmental Ethical Issues Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its nonhuman contents (Brennan Lo, 2008). Traditionally, environmental ethics put human being as the only living things with any intrinsic value, an end in itself. The earth and everything on the earth was strictly meant for the benefit of human beings. All other beings were regarded as having instrumental value; furthering some other ends. This theory or way of thinking is referred to as anthropocentric. In the last decades of the twentieth century this human centered theory was confronted with a new environmental ethical theory where humans were not the only living beings being considered to have intrinsic value. This new theory became one of importance because of the growing number of threats to the environmental condition of the world that we human beings live in. As human beings, the only ethical choice regarding the environment is to care for and preserve our environment so that we have an environment in which to prosper in the future. In a essay written by historian Lynn White jr. on the historical roots of the environmental crisis, he argues that â€Å"the main strands of Judeo-Christian thinking had encouraged the overexploitation of nature by maintaining the superiority of humans over all other forms of life on earth, and by depicting all of nature as created for the human use† (Brennan LO, 2008). These anthropocentric theories were originated from verses in the Bible where man is described as dominion over the earth and he should flourish and multiply. Judeo-Christian thoughts that lead humans to believe and live anthropocentrically are directly related to the environmental crisis that we face today. In 1968, Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich Published The Population Bomb, â€Å"warning (humans) that the growth of human population threatened the viability of planetary life systems† (Brennan and Lo, 2008). This caused people to look at the environment differently, in a non-anthropocentric manner. People began to realize that if they continued only respecting the rights of human beings and continued to disregard the importance of the earth and all other beings, it was going to negatively affect the environment, which they needed to survive. People became aware that if the world population continued to rise at such alarming rates, the environmental problems caused by overpopulation would increase in both number and seriousness. With the increased population and the anthropocentric manner of thinking, problems such as pollution and depletion of much needed natural resources would plague the humans of the world. Realizing what they stand to lose and at what financial costs has lead people to a thought process that resembles a non-anthropocentric view. It is not that all people have adopted a deep ecology belief, where they believe that all life forms have an intrinsic value and they as humans have a direct responsibility to maintain the environment for all life forms, but most humans now share the belief referred to as shallow ecology. This belief is that as humans, we have to protect the environment so that it can continue to support human life now and for future generations of human beings. Preserving what we have is exceptionally more cost effective that replacing it in the future. Currently â€Å"sixty countries have lost virtually all of their forest cover, more than three quarters of the world’s fish stocks (providing food for two billion people) are in steep decline, nearly one third of the globe’s cropland has been abandoned in the last forty years due to erosion, and the world has lost half of its wetlands and one third of it’s coral reefs (Adams, J. 2010, para. 4). According to these numbers, we are in the middle of an environmental crisis. Humans are realizing this crisis and they are suddenly showing more interest in environmental ethics. They are seeing the depletion with their own eyes and imagining how it is going to affect their wallets. Their beliefs of shallow ecology are sta rting to spread worldwide. People want to protect the environment that they have come to rely on so that it will continue to support them and not burden them financially in the future. People are not really doing this for ethical reasons, good or bad for the environment, but more for themselves as individuals. â€Å"When watersheds no longer provide fresh water, forests no longer help prevent droughts and floods, oceans no longer support healthy fish stocks, governments will be called on to provide†¦in other much more expensive ways†(Adams, J. , 2010, para. 5). It is very important to protect the environment, which supports our human life. We will not survive if we do not. Humans must make a choice to protect what they rely on for survival. The shallow ecology belief that is spreading throughout the world is still belief that humans are responsible for the protection environment, but only so that the environment stays in good enough shape that human life can be continually supported. The world is taking on an attitude of every man for himself, but this means that we must protect the environment for ourselves and our futures. People will become more and more aware of the importance of environmental ethics as it continues to affect them financially. An example being, when the price of oil went up dramatically, so did the price of gas. Only when the price of gas went up did companies really start the push of fuel-efficient cars and only when these companies started pushing them and the amount of money savings that was involved in owning one was there a real interest from people in owning them. The first concern in buying fuel-efficient cars is the money saved, second is the positive effect they have on the environment. In this world today, money is at the core of everything. If it will save money, people will generally do it.