1. Chapter 2
Environmental Ethics

2. Environmental Ethics
The Earth as seen from space.

3. Outline The Call for a New Ethic Environmental Ethics
Environmental Attitudes
Environmental Justice
Societal Environmental Ethics
Corporate Environmental Ethics

4. Outline Individual Environmental Ethics Do We Consume Too Much?
Personal Choices
Global Environmental Ethics

5. The Call for a New Ethic
A lot of what we do on our home planet connects us to something or somebody else.
Managing the interactions between people and their environment has been transformed by unprecedented increases in the rate, scale, and complexity of the interactions.
Across the world, thousands of people believe that today’s environmental challenges must be met with a new and more robust environmental ethic.

6. Environmental Ethics
Ethics is one branch of philosophy; it seeks to define what is right and what is wrong.
Ethics can help us understand what actions are wrong and why they are wrong.
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.

7. Ethics and Laws
Ideally, the laws of a nation or community should match the ethical commitments of those living there.
In the case of environmental issues, care needs to be taken over when it is appropriate to legislate something and when action should be left to the individual’s sense of right and wrong.
A strong personal ethical commitment can help guide behavior in the absence of supporting laws.

8. 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.
While forest protection may reduce logging jobs, a healthier forest might lead to new jobs in recreation, fisheries, and tourism.

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 are morally significant.
Assumes nature is an instrument for human manipulation.
Biocentrism (life-centered)
All life forms have an inherent right to exist.
Ecocentrism
This view maintains that the environment deserves direct moral consideration, not consideration derived from human or animal interests.

10. Three Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise….We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
—Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac, 1949

11. Three Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics

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

13. Environmental Attitudes
Because ethical commitments pull in different directions at different times, it is often easier to talk in terms of environmental attitudes or approaches.
The three most common attitudes/approaches are:
Development approach
Preservation approach
Conservation approach

14. Development This approach is the most anthropocentric.
It assumes the human race is, and should be, master of nature.
It assumes that the Earth and its resources exist solely for our benefit and pleasure.
This approach is reinforced by the capitalist work ethic.
This approach thinks highly of human creativity and holds that continual economic growth is a moral ideal for society.

15. Preservation This approach is the most ecocentric.
It holds that nature has intrinsic value apart from human uses.
Preservationists such as John Muir, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman articulated their positions differently, but all viewed nature as a refuge from economic activity, not as a resource for it.
Some preservationists wish to keep large parts of nature intact for aesthetic or recreational reasons (anthropocentric principles).

16. Conservation
This approach finds a balance between unrestrained development and preservationism.
Conservationism promotes human well-being but considers a wider range of long-term human goods in its decisions about environmental management.
Many of the ideas in conservationism have been incorporated into an approach known as sustainable development.

17. 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.

18. Environmental Justice
The direct action in Warren County, NC marked the birth of the environmental justice movement in the U.S.

19. Environmental Justice
Studies show that the affluent members of society generate most of the waste, while the impoverished members tend to bear most of the burden of this waste.

20. Environmental Justice
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)

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. Waste and Pollution
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.

24. Corporate Environmental Ethics
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.

25. Corporate Environmental Ethics
Corporate decision making.

26. Profitability and Power
Profit margin determines expansion.
The more demand exists for a company’s products (demand is stimulated through advertising), the more financial resources and power it has.
The greater a company’s power, the more influence it has over decision makers who can create conditions favorable to the company’s expansion plans.

27. Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
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.

28. Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
In 1989, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economics (CERES) created a set of 10 environmental standards by which the business practices of member companies could be measured.
CERES companies pledge to voluntarily go beyond legal requirements to strive for environmental excellence through business practices that:
Protect the biosphere
Sustainably use natural resources

29. Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
Reduce and dispose of waste safely
Conserve energy
Minimize environmental risks through safe technologies
Reduce the use, manufacture, and sale of products and services that cause environmental damage
Restore environmental damage
Inform the public of any health, safety, or environmental conditions

30. Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
Consider environmental policy in management decisions
Report the results of an annual environmental audit to the public.
Today, over 70 companies publicly endorse the CERES Principles, including 13 Fortune 500 firms.
CERES coordinates an investor network with assets of over $2.7 trillion.

31. Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
In 1997, The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was established.
The mission of the GRI is to develop globally applicable guidelines for reporting on economic, environmental, and social performance, initially for corporations and eventually for any business, governmental, or nongovernmental organization.
Today, at least 2000 companies around the world voluntarily report information on their economic, environmental, and social policies, practices, and performance.

32. Green Business Concepts
It makes little sense to preserve the environment if preservation causes economic collapse.
Nor does it make sense to maintain industrial productivity at the cost of breathable air, clean water, wildlife, parks, and wilderness.
Natural capitalism is the idea that businesses can both expand their profits and take good care of the environment.
The 3M Company is estimated to have saved up to $500 million over the last 20 years through its Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program.

33. Green Business Concepts
Industrial ecology links industrial production and environmental quality.
It models industrial production and biological production, forcing industry to account for where waste is going.
In nature, nothing is wasted or discarded; all materials ultimately get reused.
A pollutant is a resource out of place.
Good environmental practices are good economics.

34. 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.

35. Individual Environmental Ethics
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.

36. 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.

37. Do We Consume Too Much?
Ecologist Paul Ehrlich argues the American lifestyle is driving the global ecosystem to the brink of collapse.
Economist Julian Simon argues human ingenuity, not resources, limits economic growth and lifestyles.

38. Do We Consume Too Much? Food Energy
Fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield crops have more than doubled world food production in the past 40 years.
Food distribution, not food production, is the cause of hunger.
Energy
At current rates of consumption, known oil reserves will not last through the current century.
Foresighted energy companies are looking ahead by investing in the technologies that will replace fossil fuels.
Nuclear power, solar, wind, wave, and biomass technologies are meeting increasing proportions of national energy needs in other countries.

39. Do We Consume Too Much? Water Wild Nature
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.

40. Personal Choices
Individuals can make many lifestyle changes that significantly reduce their personal impact on the planet.
Eating food produced locally, that is low on the food chain, and is grown with a minimum of chemical fertilizers and pesticides reduces the environmental impact of food production.
Buying durable consumer products and reusing or repairing products with usable life reduces the raw materials that must be extracted from the ground.

41. Personal Choices
Conserving energy at home and on the road can lessen the amount of fossil fuels used to support your lifestyle.
Living in town rather than in the suburbs can reduce your impact on the environment.
Lobbying for protection of wild areas and voting for officials who take environmental issues seriously are other ways you can contribute to a reduced environmental impact.

42. 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.

43. Summary
Different cultures put different values on the natural world and the individual organisms that compose it. Environmental ethics investigates the justifications for these different positions.
Three common attitudes toward nature are the development approach, the preservationist approach, and the conservationist approach.
Ethical obligations toward the environment are usually closely connected to ethical obligations towards people, particularly poor people and minority groups.

44. Summary
Recognition that there is an ethical obligation to protect the environment can be made by corporations, individuals, nations, and international bodies.
Natural capitalism and industrial ecology are ideas that promote ways of doing profitable business while also protecting the environment.
Global commitments to the protection of the environment are enormously important.