LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT, 18e
G. TYLER MILLER • SCOTT E. SPOOLMAN
25
Environmental Worldviews,
Ethics, and Sustainability
©©Cengage
CengageLearning
Learning2015
2015
Core Case Study: Biosphere 2 – A Lesson
in Humility
• 1991 – Biosphere 2
– Constructed near Tucson, Arizona
• Designed to mimic the earth’s natural
chemical recycling systems
• Many unexpected problems
– Life-support system issues
• Some successes
– Waste and wastewater recycled
© Cengage Learning 2015
© Cengage Learning 2015
Fig. 25-1, p. 684
25-1 What Are Some Major Environmental
Worldviews?
• Major environmental worldviews differ on
which is more important—human needs
and wants, or the overall health of
ecosystems and the biosphere
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There Are a Variety of Environmental
Worldviews
• Environmental worldviews
– How people think the world works and what
they think their role should be
• Environmental ethics
– Beliefs about behavior is right and what
behavior is wrong with regard to the
environment
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Environmental Worldviews
Planetary Management
■ We are apart from the rest of
nature and can manage nature
to meet our increasing needs
and wants.
■ Because of our ingenuity and
technology, we will not run out
of resources.
■ The potential for economic
growth is essentially unlimited.
■ Our success depends on
how well we manage the
earth's life- support systems
mostly for our benefit.
Stewardship
■ We have an ethical
responsibility to be caring
managers, or stewards, of the
earth.
■ We will probably not run out
of resources, but they should
not be wasted.
■ We should encourage
environmentally beneficial forms
of economic growth and
discourage environmentally
harmful forms.
■ Our success depends on how
well we manage the earth's lifesupport systems for our benefit
and for the rest of nature.
Environmental Wisdom
■ We are a part of and totally
dependent on nature, and
nature exists for all species.
■ Resources are limited and
should not be wasted.
■ We should encourage earthsustaining forms of economic
growth and discourage earthdegrading forms.
■ Our success depends on
learning how nature sustains
itself and integrating such
lessons from nature into the
ways we think and act.
Stepped Art
Fig. 25-2, p. 685
Most People Have Human-Centered
Environmental Worldviews
• Two human-centered worldviews
– Planetary management worldview
• We can and should manage the earth for our own
benefit
• No-problem school
• Free-market school
• Spaceship-earth school
– Stewardship worldview
• We have an ethical responsibility to be caring
stewards
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Case Study: Managing Public Lands in the
United States
• 35% of the country’s land is managed by
the federal government
– National Forest System
– Bureau of Land Management
– U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
– National Park System
– National Wilderness Preservation System
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Case Study: Managing Public Lands in the
United States (cont’d.)
• Four principles should govern use of
public lands and their resources:
– 1. Primary use for protecting biodiversity
– 2. No subsidies for using or extracting
resources
– 3. Fair compensation for use of land
– 4. Fully responsibility for environmental
damage caused by users
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Case Study: Managing Public Lands in the
United States (cont’d.)
• Developers wish to open more federal
lands:
– 1. Sell public lands to private corporations or
individuals
– 2. Slash federal funding related to public
lands
– 3. Cut diverse old-growth forests
– 4. Open national parks to oil and gas drilling
– 5. Eliminate the National Park Service
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Can We Manage the Earth?
• Criticism of the human-centered
worldviews
– Wrongly assumes we can be good stewards
– We do not know enough about the earth
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Some Environmental Worldviews Are LifeCentered and Others are Earth-Centered
• Inherent or intrinsic value of all forms of
life
• Environmental wisdom worldview
– We are all part of the community of life and
the ecological processes that sustain all life
– The earth does not need our management
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Biosphere
Biodiversity)
Ecosystems
All species on earth
All people on earth
Nation
Community
and friends
Family
Self
Fig. 25-6, p. 689
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Fig. 25-7, p. 690
25-2 What Is the Role of Education in
Living More Sustainably?
• The first step to living more sustainably is
to become environmentally literate
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We Can Become More Environmentally
Literate
• Three foundations of environmental
literacy:
– 1. Natural capital matters
– 2. Our ecological footprints are immense and
growing rapidly
– 3. Ecological and climate tipping points:
irreversible and should never be crossed
• Requires answering key questions and
having basic understanding of key topics
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Fig. 25-8a, p. 691
© Cengage Learning 2015
Fig. 25-8b, p. 691
We Can Learn from the Earth
• Formal environmental education
– Is it enough?
• We have much to learn from nature:
– Ecological, aesthetic, and spiritual values of
nature
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© Cengage Learning 2015
Fig. 25-9, p. 692
© Cengage Learning 2015
Fig. 25-10, p. 693
25-3 How Can We Live More Sustainably?
• We can live more sustainably by:
– Becoming environmentally literate, learning
from nature
– Living more simply and lightly on the earth
– Becoming active environmental citizens
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We Can Live More Simply and Lightly on
the Earth
• Ethical guidelines:
– 1.Apply principles such as the principles of
sustainability
– 2.Protect the earth’s natural capital
– 3.Use matter and energy resources efficiently
– 4. Protect biodiversity
– 5. Leave the earth in as good condition as we
found it, or better
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We Can Live More Simply and Lightly on
the Earth (cont’d.)
• Voluntary simplicity
– Learn to live with less
– Start by asking “How much is enough?”
• Living more sustainably is not easy
– Change the way we think about, and act in,
the world
– Mental traps:
• 1.Gloom-and-doom pessimism
• 2.Blind technological optimism
© Cengage Learning 2015
Food
Reduce meat consumption
Buy or grow organic food
and buy locally grown food
Transportation
Reduce car use by walking,
biking, carpooling, car-sharing,
and using mass transit
Drive an energy-efficient
vehicle
Home Energy Use
Insulate your house, plug air
leaks, and install energyefficient windows
Use energy-efficient heating
and cooling systems, lights,
and appliances
Resource Use
Reduce, reuse, recycle,
compost, replant, and share
Use renewable energy
resources whenever possible
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Fig. 25-14, p. 696
Case Study: Rebuilding Greensburg,
Kansas – From Ruin to Sustainability
• 2007 – massive tornado destroyed town
• Citizens proposed rebuilding as a more
sustainable community
– By 2012, town has more LEED Platinum
certified new buildings per capita than any
other U.S. city
– K-12 school building uses 72% less energy
than a comparable conventional building
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© Cengage Learning 2015
Fig. 25-15, p. 697
We Can Bring About a Sustainability
Revolution in Your Lifetime
• Sustainability revolution:
– 1.Increase energy efficiency
– 2.Shift to renewable energy resources
– 3.Stabilize climate change
– 4.Stop destroying forests
– 5.Produce food more sustainably
– 6.Reuse or recycle 80% of the solid wastes
we produce
– 7.Reconnect and work with the biosphere
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Current Emphasis
Sustainability Emphasis
Energy and Climate
Fossil fuels
Direct and indirect solar energy
Energy waste
Energy efficiency
Climate disruption
Climate stabilization
Matter
High resource use and waste
Less resource use
Consume and throwaway
Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Waste disposal and
pollution control
Waste prevention and
pollution prevention
Life
Deplete and degrade natural capital
Protect natural capital
Reduce biodiversity
Protect biodiversity
Population growth
Population stabilization
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Fig. 25-16, p. 699
Change
More Sustainable Living
Unsustainable Living
Environmental
Concerns
Protecting
natural capital
Sustaining
biodiversity
Repairing
ecological
damage
Addressing
climate change
Social Trends
Reducing waste
Using less
Living more simply
Reusing and
recycling
Growth of ecocities and econeighborhoods
Environmental
justice
Environmental
literacy
Economic Tools
Full-cost pricing
Micro-lending
Green subsidies
Green taxes
Cap and trade
Net energy
analysis
Time
Technologies
Pollution prevention
Organic farming
Drip irrigation
Solar desalinization
Energy efficiency
Solar energy
Wind energy
Geothermal energy
Environmental
nanotechnology
Ecoindustrial parks
Fig. 25-17, p. 700
Three Big Ideas
• Our environmental worldviews play a key
role in how we treat the earth that sustains
us, and thus, in how we treat ourselves
• We need to become more environmentally
literate about:
– How the earth works
– How we are affecting its life-support systems
that keep us and other species alive
– What we can do to live more sustainably
© Cengage Learning 2015
Three Big Ideas (cont’d.)
• Living more sustainably means:
– Learning from nature
– Living more lightly
– Becoming active environmental citizens who
leave small environmental footprints on the
earth
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Tying It All Together: Biosphere 2 and
Sustainability
• Biosphere 2 created a microcosm to help
us understand how to live sustainably
– The takeaway: nature is complex
• Our lives depend on natural capital
– We need to reuse and recycle
– We need to depend on renewable energy
resources
– We need to mimic biodiversity
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Tying It All Together: Biosphere 2 and
Sustainability (cont’d.)
• We need to look for win-win solutions
– Satisfying the largest number of individuals
while minimizing environmental harms
– Example: paying more for the harmful
environmental and health costs of our goods
and services
• We need to band together as individuals to
make progress
© Cengage Learning 2015