PSCI 3201 Environmental Policy 09/25/07

1. PSCI 3201 Environmental Policy09/25/07 A. Competing perspectives on the environment B. Introducing the ethical perspective

2. Diverse Perspectives on the Environment: What is the environment problem, and how should we solve it? Perspective Source of Problem Proposed Solution_____________ Ethical Exploitative world view; anthropocentrism Change ethics and related behavior through Problem education and symbolic appeals Commons Human nature; failure of individual Change incentives through governmental Problem incentives to protect the environment regulation and the threat of punishment; because it is shared in common rather mutual coercion than individually owned Economics Failure of the economic system to Change economic incentives by making it Problem adequately address negative more expensive to pollute externalities expensive to pollute Science Failure of society and policy makers to Change scientists’access to policy making and Problem use appropriate scientific information in change procedures requiring consideration of decision making scientific information in policy decisions Justice Inequitable distribution of negative Address cases of environmental injustice by Problem environmental impacts (suggesting racial invoking civil rights laws and economic discrimination) Political Failure of the political process to effectively Continual process of policy making involving Problem accommodate diverse interests related conflict, negotiation and bargaining to the environment. Some folks are being left out of the process.

3. Introducing Environmental Ethicsas one of the influences on the development of U.S. environmental policy

4. Defining Ethics • A system of moral principles. • The branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to: • Right and wrong • Good and bad

5. Historic Evolution of Environmental Ethics in the U.S. Key Historic Markers • Judeo-Christian orientations • early American experience (Manifest Destiny) • wilderness appreciation (Henry David Thoreau) • wilderness preservation (John Muir) • conservation, wise use (Gifford Pinchot) • humans and the biotic community (Aldo Leopold) • ethnocentrism to ecocentrism (deep ecology)

6. Lynn White (1967)“The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” • Western religious beliefs coupled with the development of science and technology led to our ecological crises. • Creation story: • Man is made in God’s image • Man has dominion over other creatures • Development of science and technology was inspired by these beliefs: Provided justification for the exploitation of nature

7. Manifest Destiny 19th Century doctrine that it was the destiny of the U.S. to expand across the continent and put the land to productive use.

8. Westward movement: Taming the land and putting resources to use • The Homestead Act • Mining claims • Water rights

9. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Believed that nature has intrinsic value, or value for its own sake. Walden Pond, Massachusetts

10. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) “My profession is always to be on the alert to find God in Nature” “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”