Part III: Learning from Nature
Chapter 9 addresses the ethical presumption of living more ecologically. International law and equity
support the conclusion that members of industrial societies have a duty to reduce their consumption.
Arguments about character and relationships, whether religious or secular, encourage sustainable
consumption for the sake of future generations as well as nature. We have a legal right to buy and eat
what we can afford, but not a moral right to purchase beef at a subsidized price that excludes the social
and environmental costs of producing it. As citizens, we should support governmental policies that
protect public resources. As consumers, we should use our purchasing power to encourage economic
development that is environmentally sustainable.
Chapter 10 analyzes the public policies of governments, corporations, and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs). Environmental policy in the United States recognizes our duty to future
generations, which is also affirmed in international law. Corporations, such as P&G, Interface
Incorporated (carpet manufacturing), Walmart, and JPMorgan Chase (financial services), argue that
reducing waste is good for business as well as the environment. NGOs, such as Greenpeace, the Sierra
Club, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and The Nature Conservancy, use duty, character, and rights
arguments to promote environmental policies worldwide. Increasingly, moreover, NGOs and
corporations are working with governments to conserve natural capital.
Chapter 11 reviews efforts to reduce air and water pollution. In the United States the EPA has banned
lead from gasoline, required cars to have catalytic converters to reduce smog, mandated caps on the
sulfur dioxide emissions of power plants to reduce acid rain, and phased out refrigeration and aerosol
gases that have damaged the ozone layer in the stratosphere. The EPA sets water quality standards for
point-source pollution and water treatment facilities, but is using a maximum contaminant level
approach that permits lower levels of pollutants, such as pesticides—unlike the European Union, which
uses the precautionary principle to ban all pesticides from drinking water. Nonpoint-source water
pollution is largely storm water runoff. Groundwater, being pumped from aquifers for agriculture,
industry, and drinking water, is being contaminated as well as depleted. Marketing bottled water is
creating water scarcity for the poor and adding to the plastic now contaminating 40 percent of the
surface of the oceans.
Chapter 12 considers agriculture. The industrial agriculture that dominates food production is
unsustainable, because it requires cheap fossil fuels, is draining the water from underground aquifers,
and causes erosion and loss of soil fertility. In poor countries economic and educational initiatives that
empower poor women offer the best hope of controlling population growth and ensuring a sustainable
use of agricultural land. In developed economies a transition to sustainable agriculture must be
undertaken and is feasible, if those of us who are affluent reduce our consumption of meat by eating
“lower on the food chain.”
Chapter 13 reviews the debate over conservation and preservation. In the twentieth century progressive
utilitarian (sustainable yield) policies dominated US forestry until the Clinton administration initiated an
adaptive policy of ecosystem management, which has protected forests, deserts, and wetlands
restoration plans negotiated with states, cities, private landowners, and federal agencies. Efforts by the
George W. Bush administration to return to sustainable yield policies for forests were strongly resisted
by environmental NGOs, and despite opposition from Congress, the Obama administration has largely
reinstituted the adaptive management approach of the Clinton administration. Loss of rainforests
remains a crucial concern, and NGOs are trying to improve logging certification programs by involving
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Text from Doing Environmental Ethics by Robert Traer (Westview Press, 2013).
large retailers such as Home Depot and Walmart. In India and Africa, local communities are helping to
manage nature reserves and preserve endangered species, as well as benefiting economically from
limited hunting and tourism.
Chapter 14 concerns our urban environment. Architects and contractors are supporting green standards
for retrofitting old buildings and constructing innovative urban habitats. A new discipline of industrial
ecology is developing models for buildings that mimic nature in using ecosystem processes to assist in
heating and cooling, as well as in treating water and recycling waste. Cities such as Curitiba, Brazil, have
creative mass transit systems that are used by large numbers of car owners, and also highly
participatory recycling programs. European cities have car-free areas and extensive bicycle lanes, as well
as laws that protect bicyclists and pedestrians. Cities in the United States have launched sustainability
plans involving business and civic groups, as well as government agencies, and Chicago is planting trees
and tending a roof garden on city hall in its quest to be the world’s most ecological city. Yet
environmental justice remains a problem in many cities, despite recent federal initiatives to protect
poor communities from toxic waste and higher levels of air and water pollution.
Chapter 15 considers global warming, which is being caused largely by increased greenhouse gas
emissions into the atmosphere. Understanding how the carbon cycle has been distorted by industrial
society reveals the answer to the problem. We must end deforestation and implement sustainable
farming practices, so trees and cover crops can again capture and store more of the carbon in the
atmosphere. Also, we have to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in motor
vehicles, airplanes, and power plants. This reduction can be achieved in part by developing more
efficient technology, and by switching to alternative sources of energy—such as wind, solar, and
geothermal power—that do not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These changes will not be
enough, however, to prevent additional global warming. Therefore, those of us in societies with the
largest ecological footprint, such as the United States, have a moral duty to reduce our driving, flying,
and wasteful use of energy—for the sake of nature, future generations, and everyone on Earth.
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Text from Doing Environmental Ethics by Robert Traer (Westview Press, 2013).