MBE 230 Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics
MRS. SIAME
Learning Outcome
• By the end of this lecture, students will be able to:
• Define environmental ethics
• Explain different views of Environmental ethics
• Explain environmental education
• Define Sustainable development
• Describe the key principles of environmental education
• Explain the Values of Environment
• Explain ecosystem services
Definitions
• Ethics is a part of philosophy and guide us to follow righteous path which
is in the larger interest of the society as a whole.
• Environmental ethics is related to environmental philosophy and defines
what is right and wrong at ecological level.
• Environmental ethics - the study of moral issues concerning the
environment and moral perspectives, beliefs, and attitudes concerning
those issues.
• Environmental ethics is a branch of applied philosophy that studies the
conceptual foundations of environmental values as well as more concrete
issues surrounding societal attitudes, actions, and policies to protect and
sustain biodiversity and ecological systems.
Cont.….
• It is more a moral binding than legal obligations. Practicing environmental
ethics is, therefore, left to an individual.
• The outcome of such practices is always par excellence since it comes as
voluntary and hence dedication.
• Educating today‘s youths, thus, becomes more significant in order to achieve
expected outcome.
Cont.…
• Religious school of thought was the first philosophical ground to
advocate environmental ethics.
• Every religion has strongly asked its followers to respect rivers,
animals and the ecology nearby.
• Modern philosophy on environmental ethics has evolved
• Population explosion, environmental degradation, resource crisis
problems drew the attention towards the environmental concerns.
However, it also raised some challenges while deciding the
environmental ethics in contemporary situation.
CONT…
• Disparity among society, nations and region; basic right to
procure the resources for daily livelihood; right to access to
resources etc were the key challenges in designing
environmental ethics.
• This has led to different views on environmental ethics.
• Led to formulation of different approaches on environmental
ethics.
Cont.….
• There are primarily three views on environmental ethics:
• Libertarian View
• Ecological View
• Conservation View
LIBERTARIAN VIEW
• This view is correlated to the principle of civil liberty.

• As civil liberty follows the commitment to equal rights to every member of the
community, development of an ethics to deal with men‘s relationship with land animal
and plant is absolutely essential.
• Social conscience from people to land and nature is equally inevitable.
• It is not right to see the natural world simply in terms of its economic worth to human.
• Equal rights or liberty to all human and nonhuman members in the environment is the
principle doctrine of libertarian view.
ECOLOGICAL VIEW
• Ecological view demonstrates ecological functioning.
• On ethical ground, it is believed that earth has its own mechanism for functioning,
growth and development.
• Nature has its own purification processes and recovery systems of life even in most
adverse condition.
Moreover it is believed that whenever the climatic change had taken place, it took
place within a very narrow range of region to enable the life to recover before it gets
totally destroyed.
Cont.…
• This theory warns human to change their perceptions and see them as a part of a
whole system.
• later it has been considered that as the global temperature rises higher and higher
there are more climatic disasters, the planet may not be able to recover as it was
previously thought.
• With a three degree rise in global temperature, the rain forest will start to die
releasing vast new amounts of carbon dioxide; in the oceans the algae will fail
absorbing carbon.
• It is therefore, necessary to recognize fundamental interdependence of all biological
and non biological entities.
CONSERVATION ETHIC
• Conservation ethic‘ is an extension of instrumental value to the natural
environment.
• It focuses only on the work of environment in terms of its utility and usefulness to
humans.
• Conservation is the oldest form of ethic that lead to creation of national parks,
wildlife sanctuaries, responsible use of non-renewable energy sources, water
conservation efforts.
• Conservation is concerned with mankind and his future generations.
• Most of the international treaties are outline as consequences of this ethics.
ECO-SPIRITUALITY
• While policy maker‘s negotiation and create cleaner solutions, it is important to

heel the earth and its process heal us.
• It should be guided by spiritual principle that ensures long term sustainability.
• The idea that faith can be used to save ecology was first used by formation of
WORLDWIDE FUND FOR NATURE.
• Eco-spiritualism was later extended up to five major world religion
• (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islamic and Judaism).
• Each religion thus, provided spiritual motivation for environmental action in
number of its programme. „Go Green‘ has become ritual across the world.
Environmental Education
Introduction
Human being is the only species with responsibility to look
after the environmental , therefore it recognise the role and
importance of environment in order to protect it and to get
protection from it, for this, environmental education is
needed.
Environmental Education
Goals of Environmental Education
• To improve the quality of environment
• To Create an awareness among the people on environmental problems
• To create an atmosphere so that people participate in decision making and develop the capabilities
to evaluate the development programmes.
Objectives of environmental Education
• To create awareness of the Environment
• To increase knowledge and skill of Environment
• To promote right attitude toward the environment
• To promote evaluation ability
• To enable Participation
Scope of Environmental Education
• Awareness on real life situations

• Conservation
• Sustainable development
Major Environmental issues
• Climate change
• Environmental degradation
• Intensive farming
• Nuclear issues
• Over population
• Ozone depletion
• Pollution
Definitions of Sustainable development
• Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
(United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, 1987)
• Solow defines “sustainability as the requirement that the next generation must be left
with whatever it takes to achieve a standard of living at least as good as our own and
to look after their next generation similarly.”
• Amartya Sen (in “The Idea of Justice”) says we need to sustain, and when possible
expand, freedoms (including the freedoms to meet our needs and to live our life
according to certain standards) and capabilities, and what humans value and have
reason to think are important, without compromising these for future generations
The Development of Environmental Education for Sustainability
• Environmental education is now generally accepted as the basis for teaching for
sustainable development
Environmental education and education for sustainable development are aimed at:
Promotion of knowledge on the environment and its condition.
Providing criteria, standards and recommendations on decision-making in the area
of environment protection, and providing integrated solutions with respect to social,
economic and environmental issues.
Demonstrating the benefits of economic development in working together with
natural environment protection.
Promoting the importance of technology in providing support to the conservation of
natural and cultural heritage.
Developing management strategies at different levels (e.g. individual or
organisational in order to minimise the anthropogenic impact of environmental
problems).
key principles
• Along with general principles of education (scientific character, fundamentality,
evolutionary nature, integrity, systematic approach, interdisciplinary character,
humanism, practical orientation) the content and methods of environmental
education and education for sustainable development are based on the following
key principles:
• Sustainability (global and local use of natural resources without a coexistent
( decrease in biodiversity and regenerative capacity).
• Prevention (lack of reliable information about the environmental effects of
various human activities should be taken into account at all levels of planning,
and activities causing environment degradation should be avoided).
Cont.….
• Environmental (protection of the integrity of ecosystems, carrying
capacity of the biosphere, biodiversity, quality of the environment,
environmental impact assessment)
• Economic - illustrating the imperative of sustainable development
knowledge for effective economic management: efficient use of
resources, strategic sustainable management of territories, resources
and economic sectors)
• Social (education in the sphere of human rights, conflict studies,
safety of living, ethnography, anthropology, social and human
ecology).
Value of Environment
Instrumental value
The environment has value because it helps people by:
• Food
• Shelter
• Clothing
• Medicine
• Entertainment and cultural purposes
Ecosystem Services
• Ecosystem Service are the processes by which the environmental produces
resources that we often take for granted such as clean water, timber and habitat
for different species and pollination of native and agricultural plants
Ecosystem Service
• Moderate weather extremes and their impacts
• Dispersal of seeds
• Mitigation of drought and floods
• Protect people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays
• Cycle and move nutrients
• Protect stream and river channels and coastal shores from erosion
• Detoxify and decompose wastes
• Control agricultural pest
Cont.…
• Maintain biodiversity
• Generate and preserve soils and renew their fertility
• Contribute to climate stability
• Purify the air and water
• Regulate ( control) disease carrying organism
• Pollination of crops and natural vegetation
Some Do’s and Don’ts Pertaining the Environment
• Choose products with limited packaging
• Donate used books and magazines to schools, hospitals, or libraries
• Participate in the events that highlight the need for creating sanctuaries and National Parks
• Do not present flower bouquets instead gives a potted plant.
• Do not disturb, tease, hurt or throw stones at animals in a protected area and stop others forms
doing so.
Cont.…
• No wildlife products should be used
• Use a pressure cooker as much as possible to save energy
• Get your family to eat together, it will save re-heating fuel.
• Try using public transport systems like trains and buses as far a
possible
• Each one to teach one about conservation of environment
Recommendations
While conserving resources these ethic issues must be considered.

• There must be equitable use of resources over the globe
• Conservation of nature should start at individual level
Acknowledgment
Dr. Mark A. McGiinley
Honor college and department of Biological sciences Texas Tech University
References
• Alam, S., 2010. Globalization, poverty and environmental degradation:
Sustainable development in Pakistan. Journal of Sustainable Development, 3(3),
p.103
• Kasimov, N.S., Malkhazova, S.M., Romanova, E.P. and Chalkley, B.S., 2002.
Environmental education in Russian universities. Journal of Geography in Higher
Education, 26(2), pp.149-157.
• .
Thank you

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Environmental Ethics

• This view is correlated to the principle of civil liberty.

• While policy maker‘s negotiation and create cleaner solutions, it is important to

• Awareness on real life situations

While conserving resources these ethic issues must be considered.

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