Environmental culture, ethics and justice

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Environmental culture, ethics and justice
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Environmental ethics

• Ethics the study of good and bad, right and
  wrong
• Moral principles or values held by a person or
  society
• Promoting human welfare, maximizing freedom,
  minimizing pain and suffering
• Ethics is a prescriptive pursuit it tells us how
  we ought to behave
• Ethical standards criteria that help
  differentiate right from wrong

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Environmental ethics

• Environmental ethics application of ethical
  standards to relationships between human and
  nonhuman entities
• Hard to resolve it depends on the persons
  ethical standards and domain of ethical concern

Should we save resources for future generations?
When is it OK to destroy a forest to create jobs?
Is it OK for some communities to be exposed to
more pollution?
Should humans drive other species to extinction?
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Ethics and economics involve values

• Both disciplines deal with what we value
• Values affect our decisions and actions
• Solving environmental problems needs more than
  understanding how natural systems work
• Values shape human behavior
• Ethics and economics give us tools to pursue the
  triple bottom line of sustainability
• Environmental, economic, social

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Culture and worldview

• Our relationship with the environment depends on
  assessments of costs and benefits
• But culture and worldview also affect this
  relationship
• Culture knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned
  ways of life shared by a group of people
• Worldview a persons or groups beliefs about
  the meaning, operation, and essence of the world
• How a person sees his or her place in the world
• People draw dramatically different conclusions
  about a situation based on their worldviews

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Many factors shape worldviews

• Religious and spiritual beliefs shape our
  worldview and perception of the environment
• Community experiences shape attitudes
• Political ideology governments role in
  protecting the environment
• Economics
• Vested interest the strong interest of an
  individual in the outcome of a decision
• Results in gain or loss for that individual

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We value things in two ways

• Instrumental (utilitarian) value valuing
  something for its benefits by using it
• Animals are valuable because we can eat them
• Intrinsic (inherent) value valuing something
  for its own sake because it has a right to exist
• Animals are valuable because they live their own
  lives
• Things can have both instrumental and intrinsic
  value
• But different people emphasize different values
• How we value something affects how we treat it

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We have expanded our ethical consideration

• People have granted intrinsic value and ethical
  consideration to more and more people and things
• Including animals, communities, and nature
• Animal rights activists voice concern for animals
  that are hunted, raised in pens, or used for
  testing
• Rising economic prosperity broadens our ethical
  domain
• Science shows people are part of nature
• All organisms are interconnected
• Non-Western cultures often have broader ethical
  domains

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Three ethical perspectives

• Anthropocentrism only humans have intrinsic
  value
• Biocentrism some nonhuman life has intrinsic
  value
• Ecocentrism whole ecological systems have value
• A holistic perspective that preserves connections

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The preservation ethic

• Unspoiled nature should be protected for its own
  intrinsic value
• John Muir had an ecocentric viewpoint
• He was a tireless advocate for wilderness
  preservation

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The conservation ethic

• Use natural resources wisely for the greatest
  good for the most people (the utilitarian
  standard)
• Gifford Pinchot had an anthropocentric viewpoint

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The land ethic

• Healthy ecological systems depend on protecting
  all parts
• Aldo Leopold believed the land ethic changes
  the role of people from conquerors of the land
  to citizens of it
• The land ethic can help guide decision making

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The environment vs. economics

• Friction occurs between ethical and economic
  impulses
• Is there a trade-off between economics and the
  environment?
• People say protection costs too much money,
  interferes with progress, or causes job loses
• But environmental protection is good for the
  economy
• Traditional economic thought ignores or
  underestimates contributions of the environment
  to the economy
• Human economies depend on the environment

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Economics

• Economics studies how people use resources to
  provide goods and services in the face of demand
• Most environmental and economic problems are
  linked
• Root oikos, meaning household, gave rise to
  both ecology and economics
• Economy a social system that converts resources
  into
• Goods manufactured materials that are bought,
  and
• Services work done for others as a form of
  business

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People suffer external costs

• External costs include water pollution, health
  problems, property damage, and harm to other
  organism

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Valuing ecosystem goods and services

• Our society mistreats the very systems that
  sustain it
• The market ignores/undervalues ecosystem values
• Nonmarket values values not included in the
  price of a good or service (e.g., ecological,
  cultural, spiritual)

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The global value of all ecosystem services

• The global economic value of all ecosystem
  services equals US46 trillion/Year
• More than double the GDP of all nations combined
  (Currently 18 Trillion/Year)
• Protecting land gives 100 times more value than
  converting it to some other use

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