Environmental

Ethics

Presented by

Patrick Brian S. Belen

Environmental Ethics
Is a branch of ethics that studies the relation of human beings and
the environment and how ethics play a role in this. Environmental
ethics believe that humans are a part of society as well as other living
creatures, which includes plants and animals.
What Causes Environmental
Pollution?
The acts of humans lead to environmental pollution.
Extending Moral Standing
Human Being
Animals
Individual Living Organisms
Extending Moral Standing

What obligations do we have concerning the natural

environment?
We, as human beings, will perish if we do not constrain our actions
towards nature, then that ethic is considered to be
anthropocentric. After all, as far as we know, only human beings
can reason about and reflect upon ethical matters, thus giving all
moral debate a definite human-centeredness. However, within
environmental ethics anthropocentrism usually means something
more than this. It usually refers to an ethical framework that grants
moral standing solely to human beings.
Human Being
Since many of the concerns we have regarding the environment
appear to be concerns precisely because of the way they affect
human beings. For example, pollution diminishes our health,
resource depletion threatens our standards of living, climate change
puts our homes at risk, the reduction of biodiversity results in the
loss of potential medicines, and the eradication of wilderness means
we lose a source of awe and beauty.
Animal
Several philosophers have offered sophisticated arguments to
support the view that moral standing should be extended to include
animals. According to Regan, on the other hand, moral standing
should be acknowledged in all subjects-of-a-life: that is, those
beings with beliefs, desires, perception, memory, emotions, a sense
of future and the ability to initiate action (Regan, 1983/2004, ch. 7).
Individual Living Organism
According to Paul W. Taylor, all living things are teleological centers
of life.
Radical Ecology
Deep Ecology
Social Ecology
Ecofeminism
Radical Ecology
Radical ecology is the cutting edge of social ecology. It pushes social
and ecological systems toward new patterns of production,
reproduction, and consciousness that will improve the quality of
human life and the natural environment.
Deep Ecology
Deep ecology is perhaps most easily understood when considered in
opposition to its shallow counterpart. According to deep ecologists,
shallow ecology is anthropocentric and concerned with pollution and
resource depletion. Shallow ecology might thus be regarded as very
much the mainstream wing of environmentalism.
Social Ecology
Social ecology claims that the environmental crisis is a result of the
hierarchical organization of power & the authoritarian mentality
rooted in the structures of our society. The Western ideology of
dominating the natural world arises from these social relationships.
Ecofeminism
Like social ecology, ecofeminism also points to a link between social
domination and the domination of the natural world. And like both
deep ecology and social ecology, ecofeminism calls for a radical
overhaul of the prevailing philosophical perspective and ideology of
western society.
References
Environmental Ethics By Alasdair Cochrane, London School of Economics and
Political Science, United Kingdom

What are Environmental Ethics? By Conserve Energy Future

Link: http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/environmental-ethics.php