Environmental Ethics…
Learning outcomes
•Be aware that environmentalism is an umbrella term.
•Know the historical context of this debate
(enlightenment).
•Be familiar with of technocentrism and ecocentrism
•Be familiar with: the land ethic; utilitarian
environmental ethics; instrumental environmental
ethics.
What is environmentalism?
•A specialist in the maintenance of ecological
balance and the conservation of the environment
• Collins Concise English Dictionary Definition
•The ‘green’ ideas about the relationship between
society and nature
– David Pepper, 1996
Given this vagueness, we need to know a bit about
this term to understand our role as managers,
sustainability experts and scientists
The Big Picture I: The
Renaissance
The Big Picture II: The Industrial
Revolution
The Big Picture III: The
Enlightenment
Cognito, ergo sum!
The Modern Age!
• The humans are the centre of the universe, not
god.
• That reason, the power of the intellect is far more
important than faith, dogma or tradition.
• That we can understand things, and make them
more efficient, by dividing them up into lots of
little parts. This is called reductionism.
• Technology, technology, technology.
The Root of Environmental
Problems
• (broad statement): ecosystems don’t work
by dividing up things into parts that
specialize on specific tasks.
City versus Country
We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the
foot of which a turbulent river elbowed its way.
We saw what we thought was a doe fording the
torrent, her breast awash in white water. When
she climbed the bank toward us and shook out
her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. A
half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang
from the willows and all joined in a welcoming
melee of wagging tails and playful maulings.
What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and
tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot
of our rimrock.
http://7art-screensavers.com/screenshots/Angry_Wolves/2-screeming-wolves.jpg
In those days we had never heard of passing up a
chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were
pumping lead into the pack, but with more
excitement than accuracy; how to aim a steep
downhill shot is always confusing. When our
rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a
pup was dragging a leg into impassable siderocks.
http://7art-screensavers.com/screenshots/Angry_Wolves/2-screeming-wolves.jpg
We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce
green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and
have known ever since, that there was something
new to me in those eyes—something known only
to her and to the mountain. I was young then,
and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because
fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves
would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing
the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf
nor the mountain agreed with such a view.
http://7art-screensavers.com/screenshots/Angry_Wolves/2-screeming-wolves.jpg
Since then I have lived to see state after state
extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of
many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the
south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer
trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling
browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to
death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the
height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if
someone had given God a new pruning shears, and
forbidden Him all other exercise.
http://7art-screensavers.com/screenshots/Angry_Wolves/2-screeming-wolves.jpg
In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer
herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the
bones of the dead sage, or molder under the highlined junipers.
Leopold, Aldo. 1948, A Sand County Almanac. New York, Oxford University
Press. 1987 Editino, pp. 129-132.
http://7art-screensavers.com/screenshots/Angry_Wolves/2-screeming-wolves.jpg
The Land Ethic (Leopold)
A thing is right when it tends to preserve
the integrity, stability, and beauty of the
biotic community. It is wrong when it
tends otherwise.
Implications of the Land Ethic
http://www.acoustic-dream.com/archives/2002_07.php
Are we at the end of the enlightenment?
Is it technology versus the environment?
The polarized debate…
Technocentrism
Look at all the good
stuff technology has
given us!
Eco-centrism
Argh! Modern
society has polluted
the environment
Ecocentrism
• Ecocentrics, including "deep green" ecologists, see
themselves as being subject to nature, rather than
in control of it. They lack faith in modern
technology and the bureaucracy attached to it.
Ecocentrics will argue that the natural world
should be respected for its processes and products,
and that low impact technology and self-reliance
is more desirable than technological control of
nature.
•
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/esd/Earth/Ecocentrism_and_Technocentrism.html
Techno-centrism
• Technocentrics, … have … faith in technology and
industry and firmly believe that humans have control over
nature. Although technocentrics may accept that
environmental problems do exist, they do not see them as
problems to be solved by a reduction in industry. Rather,
environmental problems are seen as problems to be solved
using science [and technology]. Indeed, technocentrics see
that the way forward for developed and developing
countries and the solutions to our environmental problems
today lie in scientific and technological advancement….
•
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/esd/Earth/Ecocentrism_and_Technocentrism.html
An ecocentric view of food
Most of the people who
are going to die in the
greatest cataclysm in the
history of man have
already been born,“ (1969,
Paul Ehrlich "EcoCatastrophe!" Ramparts.)
Technocentric view of food.
Most of the people who
are going to die in the
greatest cataclysm in the
history of man have
already been born,“ (1969,
Paul Ehrlich "EcoCatastrophe!" Ramparts.)
There is no physical …
reason why human
resourcefulness cannot
forever continue to respond
to impending shortages …
Julian Simon, 1981, The
Ultimate Resource)
Evidence used by eco-centrism
Evidence used by the techno-centric
argument
Utilitarianism
• If a being suffers, them can be no moral
justification for refusing to take that
suffering into consideration. No matter what
the nature of the being, the principle of
equality requires that its suffering be
counted equally with the like suffering -in
so far as rough comparisons can be madeof any other being.
See: Singer, Peter. (1973) Animal Liberation. New York Review of
April edition. Pp. 17-21
Utility for whom?
Instrumentalism
• One of the central themes of environmental
economics, and central to sustainable
development thinking also, is the need to
place proper values on the services provided
by natural environments. The central
problem is that many of these services are
provided 'free'.
Pearce, David W., Anil Markandya, and Edward B. Barbier. 1989
Blueprint for a green economy. London: Earthscan.
Implications of Instrumentalism
Price = cost of production + profit
HOWEVER
Some costs of production (especially
environmental costs) don’t get included.
This represents a market FAILURE and would
be called a NEGATIVE EXTERNALITY
Learning outcomes
•Be aware that environmentalism is an umbrella term.
•Know the historical context of this debate
(enlightenment).
•Be familiar with of technocentrism and ecocentrism
•Be familiar with: the land ethic; utilitarian
environmental ethics; instrumental environmental
ethics.