Environmental Science, Ethics and Sustainability

1. 1 Environmental Science, Ethics and Sustainability Major Environmental Problems • Water Pollution • Sediment • Nutrient overload • Toxic chemicals Infectious • agents • Oxygen depletion • Pesticides • Oil spills • Excess heat

2. The “environment” • Consists of both: • Biotic factors (living things) • and • Abiotic factors (nonliving things) that surround us and with which we interact.

3. Humans and the environment • We humans exist within the environment and are a part of the natural world. • Like all other species, we depend for our survival on a properly functioning planet. • Thus, our interactions with our environment matter a great deal.

4. Natural resources • Renewable resources like sunlight cannot be depleted. • Nonrenewable resources like oil CAN be depleted. With a partner, please make lists of renewable and nonrenewable resources that you can think of Figure 1.1

5. Global human population growth • Our population has skyrocketed to over 7 billion. • The agricultural and industrial revolutions drove population growth. Figure 1.2

6. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) • Population growth will lead to starvation, war, disease. • Death rates check population unless birth rates are lowered. • In our day, Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb, 1968) is called “neo-Malthusian.” Figure 1.3

7. Environmental science • How does the natural world work? • How does our environment affect us? • How do we affect our environment? • Applied goal: Developing solutions to environmental problems.

8. What is an “environmental problem?” • Definitions differ. • The pesticide DDT: • was thought safe in 1945 • is known to be toxic today • but is used widely in Africa to combat malaria Figure 1.5

9. Environmental science • … can help us avoid mistakes made by past civilizations. • On Easter Island, people annihilated their culture by destroying their environment. From The Science behind the Stories

10. Environmental science • … is an interdisciplinary field, drawing on many diverse disciplines. Figure 1.6

11. Ethics Ethics is a discipline that deals with how we value and perceive our environment. Ethics influence our decisions and actions. Figure 2.1

12. Worldview • Worldview = a person’s or group’s beliefs about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world.

13. Some questions in environmental ethics Should the present generation conserve resources for future generations? Are humans justified in driving other species to extinction? Is is OK to destroy a forest to create jobs for people? Is it OK for some communities to be exposed to more pollution than others?

14. Environmental Ethics • Moral = the distinction between right and wrong • Values = the ultimate worth of actions or things

15. Environmental Ethics • is concerned with the moral relationships between humans and the world around us. Do we have special duties, obligations, or responsibilities to other species or nature in general? Are our dispositions towards humans different than towards nature? How are they different? Are there moral laws objectively valid and independent of cultural context, history, situation, or environment?

16. Environmental Perspectives (World views) • Worldview = a person’s or group’s beliefs about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world. • There are lots of them

17. Three ethical worldviews Figure 2.4

18. Environmental Perspectives • Domination • Stewardship • Biocentrism • Ecocentrism • Ecofeminism • Scientific Process • Sustainability • Critical Thinking

19. Environmental Perspectives • Domination • “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” Gen 1:28 • Stewardship • Responsibility to manage and care for a particular place. As custodians of resources, they see their proper role as working together with human and nonhuman forces to sustain life. • Humility and reverence are essential in this worldview

20. Environmental Perspectives • Biocentrism • Life centered, all organisms have some intrinsic values and rights. Biodiversity is the highest ethical value in nature. Individuals and populations are the basic units of biodiversity.

21. Environmental Perspectives • Ecocentrism • Ecologically centered, because • individuals are doomed to suffering and pain • evolution, adaptation, and biogeochemical cycles are really more important than individuals. • The whole ecosystem is more important than the individuals and populations that make up the ecosystem. • Moral values for ecological process and systems

22. Environmental Perspectives • Ecofeminism • Western civilization in opposition to nature • life is interconnected • maintenance of diversity • restructuring human society • Bounty rather than scarcity • Cooperation rather than competition • A network of personal relationships rather than isolated egos

23. Environmental Perspectives • The Scientific Process at work • 1. Provides a linear path to knowledge with positive and negative feedback loops. • 2. Requires repeated observation of the same thing, over and over again. • 3. Some times repeated observations are not possible. • 4. Need to be able to measure something. (testable?) • 5. Need to be able to control things. • 6. Need to be able to define things. • 7. Can’t Prove something to be true only that it is false • 8. Feedback goes on at each level in the scientific method.

24. Environmental Perspective • Sustainability • Refers to whether a process can be continued indefinitely without depleting the energy or material resources on which it depends. Sustainable agriculture maintains the integrity of the soil and water resources as well as genetic diversity of the germ plasm. Sustainable development provides people with a better life without sacrificing or depleting resources or causing environmental impacts that will undercut future generations. Sustainable society sustainable yield.

25. Environmental Perspective • Sustainability based on ecosystem processes • A recycling of elements • Sunlight as a source of energy • Carrying capacities are realized and maintained • Biodiversity is maintained

26. Environmental Perspectives • Critical Thinking • Elements of thought • Intellectual standards

27. Early environmental philosophers The industrial revolution inspired reaction.

28. The preservation ethic John Muir (right, with President Roosevelt at Yosemite) advocated preserving unspoiled nature, for its own sake and for human fulfillment. Figure 2.5

29. The conservation ethic Gifford Pinchot advocated using natural resources, but exploiting them wisely, for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time. Figure 2.6

30. The land ethic Aldo Leopold urged people to view themselves as part of nature, and to strive to maintain “the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.” Figure 2.7

31. Environmental justice (EJ) Poor people and minorities suffer more than their share of environmental problems, EJ advocates say. • The EJ movement began with a protest against a toxic waste dump in an African-American community in North Carolina. Figure 2.8

32. Sustainability • The key concept for our future: • Limiting human impact on the natural world so that our civilization can continue to exist

33. Sustainable development • UN: Development that “meets the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet theirs”. Figure 1.17

34. Conclusions: Challenges • We live on a planetary island with limited resources. • Population and consumption are growing. • Many feel that we have not yet developed the ethical basis for sustainability. • Environmental justice remains a challenge.

35. Conclusions: Solutions • We are developing ideas and technologies to lessen our impacts. • We can reduce population and consumption. • Sustainability is catching on. • Science helps us understand our world and develop solutions.

36. Conclusions: Solutions • Environmental science is vibrant and growing. • Ethics evolve, and we may yet develop an ethical basis for sustainability. • Advances in technology and efficiency can mitigate our environmental impacts. • Advances have been made toward environmental justice.

37. QUESTION: Review An anthropocentric worldview would consider the impact of an action on… ? a. Humans only b. Animals only c. Plants only d. All living things e. All nonliving things

38. QUESTION: Review Which ethic holds that people should use resources “for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time”? • a. Preservation ethic • b. Land ethic c. Conservation ethic d. Deep ecology e. Biocentrism

39. QUESTION: Weighing the Issues Which worldview is closest to your own? a. Anthropocentric b. Biocentric c. Ecocentric

40. QUESTION: Review • Which is a nonrenewable natural resource? • a. Sunlight • b. Petroleum • c. Timber • d. Freshwater

41. QUESTION: Review Which statement is FALSE? • a. Our environment includes living and nonliving elements. • b. Thomas Malthus favored population growth. • c. Environmental science includes multiple disciplines.