Environmental Ethics Essay

Suppose that putting out natural fires, culling feral animals or destroying some individual members of overpopulated indigenous species is necessary for the protection of the integrity of a certain ecosystem. Will this actions be morally permissible or even required? Is it morally permissible or even required? Is it morally acceptable for farmers in non-industrial to practice- slash and burn techniques to clear areas for agriculture? Consider a mining company witch has performed open pit mining in some previously unspoiled area. Does the company have moral obligation to restore the landform and surface ecology? And what is the value of a humanly restored environment compared and to consume a huge portion of the planet’s natural resources. If that wrong, it is simple because a sustainable environment and to consume a huge portion of the planet’s natural resources. If that is wrong, is it simple because a sustainable environment is essential to present and future well-being? Or such behavior also wrong because the natural environment and or its various contents have certain values in their own right so that these values ought to be respected and protected in any case? These are among the questions investigated by environmental ethics. Some of them are specific questions faced by individuals in particular circumstances, while others are moral global questions faced by groups and communities. Yet others are more abstract questions concerning the value and moral standing of the natural environment and its nonhuman components. In the literature on environmental ethics the distinction between instrumental value and intrinsic value( meaning non-instrumental value) has been of considerable importance. The former is the value of things as means to further some other ends. A set of rules outlining human responsibility concerning environmental ethics defines the relationship towards ‘’the surroundings, both biotic and abiotic’’ collective called the environment’’ (Blackmore,1977) Any person who has ever given a though to the need to protect and develop the environment has either implicit or explicit code of ethics regarding these issues that determines everyday behavior patterns. In the same way, I also have my own values and ethics regarding environmental issues that define my responsibility to the natural environment. Although at times I can violate these values when the situation proves to be challenging, I nevertheless hold them in high steem. First of all , my Ethical approach is grounded in the belief that ‘’we must recognize the inherent rights of nature and natural system to survive intact (Blackmore,1997) . All too often human beings view nature and natural system as a pleasant surrounding for their leisure time or a resource for economic activity. This is a dangerous point of view since it leads to the destruction of natural habitats through over-using, rampant pollution, depletion of resources, and the extinction of wild flora and fauna. I believe that people in their activities should recognize preservation of natural systems as an important priority that has to be considered Along with economic efficiency and at times even override it. The Earth has suffered too much from the influence of humans, and it is time to give it a rest and let it recuperate from the damage. Accordingly environmental problems will consist in problems either for human interest or for the interest of the non-human animals, and an acceptable environmental ethic would have this individual interest as its grounds. Indeed those who believe that only sentient or conscious creatures have interest and that having interest is necessary for warranting moral consideration will hold that nothing else has interest on witch environmental problems could turn. Problems for ecosystems are thus held to turn invariably on the interest of sentinel or conscious individuals, and within such and ethic, priority is liable to be placed on averting, suffering premature death for vulnerable individuals, whether is best done by the introduction of humane methods of farming, by abstaining from eating meat by curtailing human interventions in the natural order, or even possibly by intervening to reduce the suffering inflicted by predators on prey. Millions of people are influenced by such ethic, and their approach to environmental problems would often follow the general pattern just mentioned. Others, However, suggest that environmental ethics must start somewhere quite different. Thinking about the environment involves taking much greater account of ecological systems than such an individualist approach can do, and if we fail to understand the natural system of our planet we are likely to generate ecological catastrophes, either by neglect or through seeking to rescue individuals while the system on witch we depend is crumbling. By the time we have understood such systems, our focus will no longer be on the individual suffering or, since far more is at stake, such as the survival of whole species, and the health of the whole ecosystems We need to prioritize the Preservation and rehabilitation of species and of ecosystems. New and modern ’’Green technologies and the conservation of natural resources Oil, Gas, Land ect will have to be more regulated in as universal Ethics in our global economy. Bibliography Abram,D. , 1996 The spell of the sensuous, New York : vintage books Michael Walzer, interpretations and social Criticism ( New York: Basic Books,1988} J. Bair Callicutt, In defense of the land Ethic ( Albany: State of New York press, 1989) Eugene Hardgrove, Foundations of environmental ethics ( Englewood Cliffs: Prentice hall, 1989) Samuel Hays, Conservation and the gospel of efficiency ( Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press,1959)