Environmental Ethics

Liberal

Philosophical Views

Mark Sagoff

Moderate
William Baxter Norman Bowie W. Michael Hoffman

Conservative
Gretchen Morgenson & Gale Eisenstodt

Mark Sagoff
Instrumental value, value something has towards fulfilling some goal. Analogous to extrinsic value. Discusses, Zuckermans Dilemma, What is this?

William Baxter
In his essay, People or Penguins Baxter argues that people have intrinsic value, but that penguins do not. In Baxters words, Every human being should be regarded as an end rather than as a means to be used for the betterment of another. This means that people have intrinsic value and should not be used.

Value Concepts
Intrinsic Value Extrinsic Value

Intrinsic Value
Intrinsic value is value that a thing has in and of its self. Often valuable as an ends. Examples: Happiness, Love, Honor, Family, Heath, and Freedom

Extrinsic Value
Something has extrinsic if it is valuable as a means to acquiring or attaining something we value in virtue of itself. For example money has little or no intrinsic value, its just bits of paper or metal, but it has great extrinsic value in that it can used to acquire other items which we do value.

Penguins have value

Penguins have value, if people find then valuable. If they make us happy or we enjoy watching them march across Antarctica.

Norman Bowie
Business should not interfere in political regulation of environmental policy.

Business Should not Interfere

1. Business argues that it has no special obligation to the environment because it is willing to follow consumers preference on this issue. 2. Because of external factors consumers cannot express their preferences in the market 3. Therefore they must express them in the political arena 4. Business intervention interferes with the express of those preferences 5. Since 4 follows from 1, business should not interfere in the political process.

W. Michael Hoffman
Extremes in weather show that there are serious ramification to environmental policy. He argues against Norman Bowie saying that business, the government and consumers should work together to resolve environmental issues.

Gretchen Morgenson & Gale Eisenstodt

Government regulation is not the answer to environmental ethics. A free market approach is the solution.

Whales
Whales are highly evolved animals with all the sensitivities that that statement implies. They have a complex social life. They call to one another across the vast expanses of the oceans. They are the largest animals that have ever existed, far larger than any dinosaur.

Synthetic vs. Natural

There is nothing in the body of a whale, which is of use to us, for which we cannot find equivalents elsewhere.
http://www.whalewatch.org

What value do whales have today?

Instrumental? Aesthetic Moral?

Global Warming
Global Warming is a reality.

Effects
Warmer oceans, more tropical cyclones, stronger hurricanes, rising oceans. Extremes in weather, change in environment resulting in loss of habitats for numerous creatures.

Glaciers are melting

 More than 110 glaciers have disappeared from Montanas Glacier National Park over the past 150 years, and researchers estimate that the parks remaining 37 glaciers may be gone in another 25 years. Half a world away on the African equator, Hemingways snows of Kilimanjaro are steadily melting and could completely disappear in the next 20 years. In the Alps, Andes and Rockies, glaciers are retreating and disappearing every year.

Air Pollution
Smog clouds our cities.

Acid Rain
The term "acid rain" is commonly used to mean the deposition of acidic components in rain, snow, fog, dew, or dry particles. The more accurate term is "acid precipitation." Distilled water, which contains no carbon dioxide, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH less than 7 are acid, and those with a pH greater than 7 are alkaline (or basic). "Clean" or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of 5.6, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid.

Acid in DC
Around Washington, D.C. the average rain pH is between 4.2 and 4.4. The extra acidity in rain comes from the reaction of air pollutants, primarily sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, with water in the air to form strong acids (like sulfuric and nitric acid). The main sources of these pollutants are vehicles and industrial and power-generating plants. In Washington, the main local sources are cars, trucks, and buses.

Acid Rain in the USA

Numerous other concerns

The environment, plant and animal extinctions, human development of natural lands, and fossil fuels are all major issues within this topic.