Environment
Major
Environmental
Water Pollution Problems
• Sediment
• Nutrient
overload
• Toxic chemicals
Infectious
• agents
• Oxygen
depletion
• Pesticides
• Oil spills
• Excess heat
The Environment
• The nature of
environmental science
• The scientific method
and the scientific
process
• Natural resources and
their importance
• Culture and
worldviews
• Environmental ethics
• Sustainability
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.
Natural resources
• Renewable resources like sunlight cannot be depleted.
• Nonrenewable resources like oil CAN be depleted.
• Resources like timber and clean water are renewable only
if we do not overuse them.
Figure 1.1
Global human population growth
• Our population has
skyrocketed to over
6 billion.
• The agricultural and
industrial revolutions
drove population
growth.
Figure 1.2
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
Experiments
Manipulative experiments Natural or correlational
are strongest. ones are often necessary.
Figure 1.10
Ethics
Ethics is a discipline that
deals with how we value
and perceive our
environment.
Ethics influence our
decisions and actions.
Figure 2.1
Some questions in environmental ethics
Should the present
generation conserve
resources for future Are humans justified
generations? in driving other
species to extinction?
Is is OK to destroy a
forest to create jobs Is it OK for some
for people? communities to be
exposed to more
pollution than others?
Environmental Ethics
Relativists
Moral principles are always relative to a particular person,
society, or situation. Ethical values are contextual, that is
they depend on the person, the society, or the situation.
There is right and wrong or at least better or worse but no
principles are absolute regardless of context.
Sophists
Environmental Ethics
Nihilists
The world makes no sense at all! Everything is completely
arbitrary, there is no meaning or purpose to life other than
the instinctive struggle for survival. There is no reason to
behave morally. Might is right. The is no such thing as the
good life. Life is uncertain full of pain and despair.
Schopenhauer
Environmental Ethics
Utilitarians
An action is right that produces the greatest good for the
greatest number of people.
Goodness = Happiness Happiness = Pleasure
Bentham (Plato, Socrates, Aristotle)
John Stuart Mill held that the greatest pleasure is to be
educated and to act according to enlightened,
humanitarian principles
Three ethical worldviews
Figure 2.4
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
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.
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
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
Sustainable development
UN: Development that “meets the needs of the present
without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet
theirs”.
Figure 1.17
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.