ENVIRONMENTAL
ETHICS
AGENDA
• Environmental Ethics
• Environmental Issues
• Some audio-visual resources
• Some concept and theories
• Some suggestions for teaching planning
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A branch of applied ethics that deals with the ethical
relationship between human beings and the natural
environment.
DEFINITION
KEY
QUESTIONS
How to value the environment?
What is the aesthetic value of nature?
What, if there is any, environmental obligations do
we need to keep for the future generations?
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VALUE OF NATURE
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CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming, fossil fuels, sea level rise, greenhouse gas
CONSERVATION
Habitat destruction, species extinction
ENERGY
Energy conservation, renewable energy, efficient energy use
INTENSIVE FARMING
ENVIRONMENTAL
ISSUES
Overgrazing, desertification, cruelty to animals
POLLUTION
Air, Light, Noise, Land, Water
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RESOURCE DEPLETION
Consumerism, logging, mining
TOXINS
CFC, DDT, heavy metals, pesticides, toxic waste
WASTE
Littering, landfills, incineration
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AUDIO-VISUAL
RESOURCES
CHICKEN RUN
• A band of chickens escapes from their coop
before their owners turn them all into chicken
pies
• Useful for intensive farming anf animal rights.
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THE TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE
CHANGE
• 2006 BBC documentary about global warming
by David Attenborough
• Useful for climate change.
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ANTHROPOCENTRISM
• This view that places humans at the centre
of the universe; evaluates everything else in
terms of its utility for humans; human race
must always be its own priority
• Dominant in the western tradition
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Promote students’ awareness of environmental issues
and problems.
Encourage students’ empathy with nature.
Help students cultivate ethical responsibility towards
nature.
GOALS
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SUMMARY
• Environmental ethics says that one should
base their behavior on a set of ethical values
that guide our approach toward the other
living beings in nature.
• Environmental ethics is about including the
rights of non-human animals in our ethical
and moral values.
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THANK YOU
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