1. Some questions in environmental ethics
Should the present generation conserve resources for future generations?
Are humans justified in driving other species to extinction?
Is it OK for some communities to be exposed to more pollution than others?
Is is OK to destroy a forest to create jobs for people?

2. Environmental Worldviews and Ethics

3. ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS AND VALUES
Your environmental worldview encompasses:
How you think the world works.
What you believe your environmental role in the world should be.
What you believe is right and wrong environmental behavior.

4. Environmental Ethics
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.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

5. Three ethical worldviews

6. Different Foci of Environmental Ethics
1. Anthropocentric
Human centered
The environment has value only for what it can provide for us

7. Value of Environment Instrumental Value
The environment has value because it helps people to reach some end
Food
Shelter
Clothing
Medicine
Entertainment

8. Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem Services are the processes by which the environment produces resources that we often take for granted such as clean water, timber, and habitat for fisheries, and pollination of native and agricultural plants.
Ecological Society of America

9. Ecosystem Services
• moderate weather extremes and their impacts • disperse seeds • mitigate drought and floods • protect people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays • cycle and move nutrients • protect stream and river channels and coastal shores from erosion • detoxify and decompose wastes • control agricultural pests • maintain biodiversity • generate and preserve soils and renew their fertility • contribute to climate stability • purify the air and water • regulate disease carrying organisms • pollinate crops and natural vegetation

10. Value of Ecosystem Services
In the 1990s a group of ecologists attempted to estimate the monetary value of ecosystem services
Estimates ranged from 18 – 52 trillion dollars!
Mean- 33 trillion
Equal to 1.8 times the GDP of the USA

11. Versions of Anthropocentric Views- Frontier Ethic
A frontier ethic assumes that the earth has an unlimited supply of resources.
If resources run out in one area, more can be found elsewhere or alternatively human ingenuity will find substitutes.
This attitude sees humans as masters who manage the planet.
Cnx.org

12. Versions of Anthropocentric Views- Judeo-Christian Ethic
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

13. Three ethical worldviews

14. Different Foci of Environmental Ethics
2. Biocentric ethic
- views all life as possessing intrinsic value.
Intrinsic value
Aspects of the environment have inherent value just because they exist

15. Biocentric Ethic
An individualistic biocentric ethic recognizes intrinsic value in every living thing
A holistic biocentric ethic recognizes species or aggregates of living things
species are not living, so some argue that it is not possible to have holistic approach because “species” are not living

16. Biocentric Ethic
An egalitarian biocentric ethic accords equal value to all living things
A nonegalitarian biocentric ethic would give greater value to certain living things over others.
Egalitarian- a society in which all things are equal

17. Three ethical worldviews

18. Foci of Environmental Ethics
3. Ecocentric ethic
All aspects of the environment, both living and non-living, have inherent value

19. Land Ethic Developed by American Aldo Leopold
Sand County Almanac- 1939
Leopold thought that ethics direct individuals to cooperate with each other for the mutual benefit of all.
He argued that this ‘community’ should be enlarged to include non-human elements such as soils, waters, plants, and animals, “or collectively: the land”.

20. ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS AND VALUES
Environmental worldviews lie on a continuum.
Figure 26-2

21. HUMAN-CENTERED AND LIFE-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS
The major difference among environmental worldviews is the emphasis they put on the role of humans dealing with environmental problems.
Some view that humans are the planet’s most important species and should become managers or stewards of the earth.

22. Environmental Worldviews
Planetary Management
• We are apart from the rest of
nature and can manage nature to
meet our increasing needs and
wants.
• Because of our ingenuity and
technology we will not run out of
resources.
• The potential for economic
growth is essentially unlimited.
• Our success depends on how
well we manage the earth's life
support systems mostly for our
benefit.
Stewardship
• We have an ethical
responsibility to be caring
managers, or stewards,
of the earth.
• We will probably not run out of
resources, but they should not be
wasted.
• We should encourage
environmentally beneficial forms
of economic growth & discourage
environmentally harmful forms.
• Our success depends on how
well we manage the earth's life
support systems for our benefit
and for the rest of nature.
Environmental Wisdom
• We are a part of and totally
dependent on nature and nature
exists for all species.
• Resources are limited, should
not be wasted, and are not all
for us.
• We should encourage earth
sustaining forms of economic
growth & discourage earth
degrading forms.
• Our success depends on
learning how nature sustains
itself and integrating such lessons
from nature into the ways we
think and act.
Figure 26.3
Comparison of three major environmental worldviews. QUESTION: Which of these environmental worldviews come closest to your beliefs?
Fig. 26-3, p. 617

23. Other more recent schools of thought
Deep ecology = humans are inseparable from nature; protect all living things as one would protect oneself
Ecofeminism = male-dominated societies have degraded women and the environment for similar reasons- believes that women should be given the same rights that men have in our joint quest to develop more environmentally sustainable and socially just societies

24. Deep Ecology
Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of other beings, aside from their utility. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the biosphere.
Norwegian Arne Naes- 1970s
Wikipedia

25. Deep Ecology
Deep ecology describes itself as "deep" because it persists in asking deeper questions concerning "why" and "how" and thus is concerned with the fundamental philosophical questions about the impacts of human life as one part of the ecosphere, rather than with a narrow view of ecology as a branch of biological science.

26. Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a social and political movement which points to the existence of considerable common ground between environmentalism and  feminism with some currents linking deep ecology and feminism.
Wikipedia

27. Shifts in Environmental Values and Worldviews: Some Encouraging Trends
Global and national polls reveal a shift towards the stewardship, environmental wisdom, and deep ecology worldviews.

28. Environmental justice (EJ)
Poor people and minorities suffer more than their share of environmental problems, EJ advocates say.
The EJ movement began with a protest against a toxic waste dump in an African-American community in North Carolina.

29. Environmental justice (EJ)

30. How Would You Vote?
Which one of the following comes closest to your environmental worldview:
a. Planetary management
b. Stewardship
c. Environmental wisdom
d. Deep ecology
e. Ecofeminist

31. How Would You Vote?
Do you believe there are physical and biological limits to human economic growth?
a. No. I have faith in human ingenuity and creativity.
b. Depends. Some (but not all) aspects of economic growth are limited.
c. Yes. Ecological economists are generally correct.