1. Houston Community College/ Southeast
ENVR1305
Environmental Science
A Study of Interrelationships
14 Edition
Enger & Smith

2. Chapter 2 Environmental Ethics
Ethics & Laws
Major Ethical Approaches
Environmental Attitudes
Environmental Justice
Corporate Environmental Ethics
Individual Environmental Ethics
Global Environmental Ethics
Water Management
Environmental Regulations & Policy

3. Environmental Challenges
Life on Earth faces the greatest mass Extinction.
Natural resources are being polluted and depleted at alarming rates.
Human population growth is increasing exponentially.
Urbanization (forests, wetlands, top soils, grasslands are being developed).
Soil, water, and air pollution
Destruction of Ozone layer
Global Warming.

4. The Call for New Ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that seeks to define what is right and what is wrong.
Ethics can help us understand what actions are wrong and why they are wrong.
“It is ethically wrong to needlessly take a life”

5. Cultural relativism
Not all cultures share the same ethical commitments.
Cultural relativism in ethics acknowledges these differences exist.
Despite the presence of some differences, there are many cases in which ethical commitments can and should be globally agreed upon (right to life, liberty, security… Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).

6. Ethics & Laws
Ideally, the laws of a nation or community should match the ethical commitments of those living there.
Laws are changed to match ethical commitments only after a long period of struggle and debates
Not every action that is ethically right can be supported by law… Personal ethical commitment

7. Conflicting Ethical Positions
Sometimes an individual’s ethical commitments can conflict with each other.
A mayor might have an ethical commitment to preserving land in a city but also have an ethical commitment to bringing in jobs associated with construction of a new factory.
In many cases, what is good for the environment is also good for people… Search for “win-win” situations.
While forest protection may reduce logging jobs, a healthier forest might lead to new jobs in recreation, fisheries, and tourism.

8. Environmental Ethics
It is a systematic account of the moral relations between human beings and their natural environment.
It assumes that moral norms can, and do, govern human behavior toward the natural world.
What these norms are?
To whom, or to what, humans have responsibilities?
How these responsibilities are justified?

9. Three Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics
Anthropocentrism (human-centered)
This view holds that all environmental responsibility is derived from human interests.
Assumes that only humans have direct moral standing.
Assumes nature is an instrument for human manipulation.
Future generations have rights / don’t have rights?
Pro-Development approach (Convert all of Nature over to human uses… Continual economic growth is itself a moral ideal for society)

10. Continue Biocentrism (life-centered)
All life forms have an inherent right to exist.
Hierarchy of values among species:
Some believe that we have greater responsibility to protect animals than plants, and greater responsibility to protect mammals than invertebrates.
Pro-Conservation approach: natural resources should be used at low rates to have enough time to regenerate itself.

11. Continue
Ecocentrism
This view maintains that the environment deserves direct moral consideration, not consideration derived from human or animal interests.
Nature has intrinsic value apart from human uses.
Pro-Preservation approach: Large portions of nature must be protected…

12. Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development is a middle ground that seeks to promote development while still preserving the ecological health of the landscape.

13. Other Philosophical Approaches
Other areas of philosophical thought address environmental issues:
Ecofeminism
Social ecology
Deep ecology
Environmental pragmatism
Environmental aesthetics
Animal rights/welfare

14. Environmental Justice
In 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defined environmental justice as fair treatment, meaning:
“No group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies.”
Environmental justice is closely related to civil rights.

15. Continue
Environmental justice encompasses a wide range of issues, including:
Where to place hazardous and polluting facilities
Transportation
Safe housing, lead poisoning, and water quality
Access to recreation
Exposure to noise pollution
Access to environmental information
Hazardous waste cleanup
Exposure to natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Katrina)

16. Societal Environmental Ethics
Western societies have long acted as if the earth has:
Unlimited reserves of natural resources.
An unlimited ability to assimilate wastes.
A limitless ability to accommodate unchecked growth.
Until the last quarter of the 20th century, economic growth and resource exploitation were the dominant orientations toward the natural environment in industrialized societies.
Things have now started to change.

17. Corporate Environmental Ethics
Corporations are legal entities designed to operate at a profit.
Although a corporation’s primary purpose is to generate a financial return for its shareholders, this does not mean that a corporation has no ethical obligations to the public or to the environment.
Shareholders can demand that their directors run the corporation ethically.

18. Continue
The daily tasks of industry, such as procuring raw materials, manufacturing and marketing products, and disposing of wastes, cause large amounts of pollution.
The cost of controlling waste can be very important in determining a company’s profit margin.
Ethics are involved when a corporation cuts corners in production quality or waste disposal to maximize profit without regard for public or environmental well-being.

19. Continue
Actions such as dumping waste in a river rather than installing a wastewater treatment facility or using expensive filters externalize the costs of doing business so that the public, rather than the corporation, pays those costs.
Because stockholders expect a return on an investment, corporations can be drawn toward making decisions based on short-term profitability rather than long-term benefit to the environment or society.

20. Continue
Greenwashing is a form of corporate misinformation where a company will present a green public image and publicize green initiatives that are false and misleading.
Corporations face real choices between using environmentally friendly or harmful production processes, and are facing more pressure to adopt more environmentally and socially responsible practices.
The International Organization for Standardization ( has developed a program called ISO to encourage industries to adopt the most environmentally sensitive production practices.

21. Individual Environmental Ethics
Ethical changes in society and business must start with individuals.
We must recognize that our individual actions have a bearing on environmental quality and that each of us bears some responsibility for the quality of the environment in which we live.
Opinion polls conducted over the past decade have indicated Americans think environmental problems can often have a quick technological fix.
Many individuals want the environment cleaned up, but do not want to make the necessary lifestyle changes to make that happen.

22. Do We Consume Too Much?
North Americans represent 5% of the world’s population.
North Americans consume one-fourth of the world’s oil.
They use more water and own more cars than anybody else.
They waste more food than most people in sub-Saharan Africa eat.
Water
Currently humans use about half the planet’s accessible supply of renewable, fresh water.
More than any other resource, water may limit consumerism in the next century.
Wild Nature
Every day in the U.S., between 1000 and 2000 hectares of farmland and natural areas are permanently lost to development.

23. Global Environmental Ethics
Ecological degradation in any nation inevitably impinges on the quality of life in others.
Much of the current environmental crisis is rooted in the widening gap between rich and poor nations.
Environmental ethics suggests that we may have an obligation beyond minimizing the harm we cause to our fellow human citizens.
It suggests we may also have an obligation to minimize the harm we cause to the ecological systems and the biodiversity of the Earth itself.