Introduction
Environment ethics concerns itself with formulating our moral obligations regarding the environment. This enterprise is meant to engage with the real world. Ethics seeks a critical grasp of the Principles and standards that guide a man in making morally right choices in his daily activities. It involves intelligent judgment and voluntary action wherever a problem of right and wrong conduct confronts us; we face a choice between alternative values. Moral judgment must be conceived with the man himself, with the principle on which he proposes to act. An action is morally good only if the Principle which is manifested in it is right.
Effectiveness of states and governments in getting there will affect the types of ethics that emerge. Ethics must propose alternative and better means of resolving the environmental problems we face.
Ethical behavior could inspire a collaborative culture of new thinking and unconventional ideas that push change in unexpected way.
Degradation has reached an alarming stage that it is vital to create greater awareness of environmental problems.

Definition of key terms
Ethics
Ethics is character or type of conduct that is approved or disapproved of in terms of right and wrong or good and bad.
Environmental ethics
Environmental Ethics is the discipline that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of the environment and its non human content.
Sustainability.
This is the ability to exploit natural resources at a rate that does not compromise the ability of future generations to benefit from the same resources.
The ethical approach to sustainability
Sustainability is a human construct in that humans use their environment for a range of objectives, including subsistence, commodity production, aesthetic pleasure and indirect eco system services. These objectives have their basis in the desire to sustain human life, enhance standards of living, maintain culture and protect environmental quality for generations to follow. The different objectives for the use of environmental resources

lead to different expectations as to what is to be sustained and who is to have claims on environmental services.
The paper demonstrates the difficulties of crafting equitable schemes that promote better stewardship and resilience for the conservation of natural resources.
Equity is an important aspect of this approach to sustainability. The environmental view of sustainable development focuses on the stability of biological and physical systems. The emphasis is on preserving the resilience and dynamic ability of such systems to adapt to change, rather than conservation of some ideal “static state. Natural resource degradation, pollution and loss of biodiversity reduce system resilience.
Reconciling these various concepts and implementing them as a means to achieve sustainable development is a formidable task, since all three elements of sustainable development must be given balanced consideration.
Protection of the environment is a major objective of development.
Economic development ultimately depends on the institutions that can protect and maintain the environment’s carrying capacity and resilience
(Arrow and others 1995). The ethics and behavior of humans in relation to

their use of the environment is critical to the design and implementations of effective environmental protection.
It should be noted that ethics and rules are effective in modulating the interaction between humans and their environment and this must reflect both general principles and specific social and ecological contexts.
Ecological contexts contain the structure of eco systems in which humans live and work, as well as the particular functional properties of those ecosystems. The particular details of the social and ecological context are what give a human environmental interaction its variety in detail.
Traditional knowledge
One link between ecological and human systems is developed through local knowledge, also called traditional ecological knowledge or indigenous knowledge. There are many forms of knowledge about both ecological and human systems which are not generated scientifically but rather result from years of direct work experience, customs and practices with respect to the environment and are often operational expressions of traditional knowledge on the structure and function of the environmental resources. For example villagers in India, acquire and use knowledge in the course of their work, which links them to the environment (Palsson
1991; Godgil and others 1993) India.

In Africa indigenous traditions contain symbolic and ethical messages that are passed from generation to generation in order to ensure respect and compassion for other living creatures. These are in form of taboos and myths.
However not all indigenous knowledge is environmentally friendly.
Principle 22 of the Rio declaration highlights the important issue of recognition of the special knowledge of indigenous people which is important in environmental management and development.
Governments and inter governmental organization should empower indigenous people and their communities to protect the environment.
Challenges
A major challenge for the design of environmental ethics and rules is to ensure that decision makers have the appropriate incentives to take such equilibrium shifts into account and make the appropriate tradeoffs between the social costs and benefits to society at large.
This requires monitoring feedback from the ecological system when making decisions, allowing perturbations to enter the system at a scale

that allow subsystems variability but does not challenge the underlying ecological and economic activity (Berkes and Folke 1994).
The need to understand the relationship between poverty, population and the environment is critical. Expanding populations which exacerbate economic social and ecological impoverishment make all the existing environmental problems more critical (Calwell 1984)
Property rights regimes and laws
Property rights regimes matter to the use of environmental resources, a fact that has been well established, if not practiced.
Garret Hardin’s article ‘‘the tragedy of the commons’’ focused widespread attention on the problem of environmental degradation in the absence of rules governing use. He argued that collectively owned property was the culprit of degradation and that private property is necessary to sustain environmental practices.
I however hold the opinion which is based on scientific evidence that indicates that sustaining the environmental resources is not dependant on a particular structure of property regime but rather on a well specified property rights regime and a congruency of that regime with the ecological and social context.

Philosophers
Numerous philosophers have written on this topic though it only developed in the 1970s due to increased awareness in the 1960s of what technology, industrial economic expansion and population growth were having on the environment.
Some moralists like Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 have concentrated on man’s native egoism and insatiate greed. Others point out that self regard and benevolence are both natural to man.
Michiavelli, argued that social and political order has by right an ethical basis. It is not imposed on its subjects but itself grows out of the tissue of the institution of normal human life.
Radical ecologists are of the view that ethical extensionism is inadequate because it is stuck in traditional ways of thinking that led to those environmental problems in the first place. Their opinion is that it is too human centered.
Social ecology and deep ecology are of the view that environmental crisis lies in the dominant ideology of western societies.
Eco feminism points to the link between social domination and the domination of the natural world.
By mid 1970s feminists had raised the issue of whether patriarchal modes of thinking encouraged not only widespread inferior sing and colonizing of

women but also people of color, animals and nature. Eco feminism calls for radical overhaul of the prevailing philosophical perspective and ideology of western society.
Ethics and intrinsic value
Humans are given greater intrinsic value. This gives them power to advance their selfish ends. The moral duties we have towards the environment are derived from our direct duty to other inhabitants.
The instrumental and intrinsic value of items in the environment therefore generates moral duty on the part of moral agents to protect it or at least refrain from damaging it [O’Neil 1992]. Many ethical perspectives assign a significantly greater amount of intrinsic value to human beings than to any non human things such that the protection or promotion of human interests or wellbeing at the expense of non human things turns out to be nearly always justified. Such destruction might damage the wellbeing of human beings now and in the future, since our well being is essentially dependant on a sustainable environment [pasmore1974]
Environmental ethics poses a challenge to traditional anthropocentrism. In the first place, it questioned the assumed moral superiority of human beings to members of other species on earth. Secondly it investigated the

possibility of rational arguments for assigning intrinsic value to the natural environment and its non human content.
Role of states in relation to environmental justice.
Statutes should ensure that modes of thinking that encourage inferiorising and colonizing have to be changed and attitudes that promote equity and global citizenship are promoted.
States should act with awareness of the world as a global community by recognizing and fulfilling its obligation and rights of global citizens. States should include a level of good will in their foreign policy.
Inter institutional, national and regional coordination is critical to the promotion of positive attitudes. States should also be encouraged to share their environmental legislation and best practice.
Conclusion
In conclusion these thoughts on environmental ethics demonstrate that, ethics has an important role to play in ensuring sustainability in a contemporary society. However ethics alone cannot be effective it’s important in addition to deal with the major causes of pollution and these include poverty, rapid population growth, deforestation and wars among others.
Ethical behavior could inspire a collaborative culture of new thinking and unconventional ideas that push change in unexpected way.

Degradation has reached an alarming stage that it is vital to create greater awareness of environmental problems.
Hence it is crucial to see how we comprehend our relationship between our daily practices and thinking and the sustainability of the natural world.
We affirm finally that any deliberate attempt to reach a rational and enduring state of equilibrium by planned measures, rather than by chance or catastrophe must ultimately be founded on the basic change of values and goals at individual, national and world levels.
Bibliography
Berkes, Fikret, Carl Folic and Madivan Godgil 1993. Traditional ecological knowledge, Bio diversity, Resilience and sustainability, Beijer international institute of ecological economies, Beijer discussion Paper series No. 31.
Southgate. D. and Desinger J[1987] eds, sustainable development in the third world, Boulder; west view press.
Hjort A and Salin M [1980], Ecology and politics; Environmental stess and security in Africa ,Uppsala; Scandinavian institute of African Studies