Transcript Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics
Definitions
• Moral Agents
– Those who have the freedom
and rational capacity to be
responsible for choices
– Those capable of moral
reflection and decision.
– Example: adult humans of
sound mind
• Infants and mentally infirm
adults are NOT moral agents
Definitions
• Moral Standing:
– Something you determine
should be treated morally
– Example: humans of all kinds
• Babies, children, adults, old
people, etc.
• Women, different races,
different cultures
Definitions
• Moral Duties
– Morals owed by moral
agents to those with
moral standing.
– Example: It is wrong to
kill our children because
we have a moral duty
toward them
Philosophical Issue
• Who or what has moral
standing, and why?
– Does the environment have
moral standing?
– Must look at criteria for
moral standing
• What moral duty do we
(moral agents) have
toward those with moral
standing?
– Different ethical positions
suggest different moral
duties.
Yosemite National Park
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Membership in the species
Homo sapiens
– Humans have a soul
– Humans are moral agents
• and are responsible for
knowing right from wrong
– Humans are intelligent
– Humans have personhood
• and self-consciousness
– Humans have language
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Sentience, the ability
to feel pain
– Therefore extend
moral standing to
animals
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Being alive
– Therefore extend
moral standing to
animals and plants:
– All living things.
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Being part of nature
– Therefore extend moral
standing to the
• earth
• ecosystems
• rocks
• rivers
• plants animals
• the entire natural
world
Ethical Positions
• Anthropocentrism:
Human centered
morality
– Only humans have
intrinsic value and
moral standing.
– The rest of the
natural world has
instrumental value
(use to humans).
Anthropocentrism
– We can best protect
nature by looking out
for human needs.
• Ex: Ducks Unlimited
preserves wetlands
• Ex: Saving the
rainforests will
provide O2 and
medicines for humans.
• Genesis: God commands humans to "fill
the earth and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the air and over every living thing...”
– After the great flood God says to Noah: the
animals will dread and fear you, and I will give
you dominion over "everything that creeps on the
ground, and over all the fish of the sea."
Ethical Positions
• Sentio-centrism:
– All and only sentient
beings (animals that feel
pain) have intrinsic value
and moral standing.
– The rest of the natural
world has instrumental
value.
– Both humans and
sentient animals have
rights and/or interests
that must be considered
Ethical Positions
• Biocentric Individualism:
Life-centered morality
– All and only living beings,
specifically individual organisms
(not species or ecosystems) have
intrinsic value and moral
standing.
– Humans are not superior to
other life forms nor privileged,
and must respect the inherent
worth of every organism
– Humans should minimize harm
and interference with nature:
eat vegetarian since less land
needs to be cultivated.
Ethical Positions
• Eco-centric Holism:
ecosystem centered morality
• Non-living things, species, and
natural processes have moral
standing or intrinsic value and
are deserving of respect.
• Individuals must be concerned
about the whole community of
life/nature,
• Humans should strive to
preserve ecological balance and
stability.
Deep Ecology
• Humans are deeply
connected with nature.
• If humans identify with
nature, then taking care
of the natural world will
become part of taking
care of one's self.
Sitting Bull, 1877
• “Behold, my brothers, the
spring has come; the earth has
received the embraces of the
sun and we shall soon see the
results of that love!
• Every seed has awakened and
so has all animal life.
• It is through this mysterious
power that we too have our
being and we therefore yield to
our neighbors, even our animal
neighbors, the same right as
ourselves, to inhabit this land…
Sitting Bull, 1877
• “Yet hear me, my people,
we have now to deal with
another race - small and
feeble when our fathers first
met them, but now great and
overbearing.
• Strangely enough they have
a mind to till the soil and the
love of possessions is a
disease with them . . ..
Sitting Bull, 1877
• “They claim this mother of
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ours, the earth, for their own,
and fence their neighbors away;
they deface her with their
buildings and their refuse.
They threaten to take [the land]
away from us.
My brothers, shall we submit, or
shall we say to them:
"First kill me before you take
possession of my Fatherland."
Bioregionalism
• Lead a simple life with
local production of food
and other products by
people that you know
– Increases environmental
awareness and caring
– decreases exploitation of
the environment and
people.
Ecoterrorism
• The term "eco-terrorism" (or ecoterrorism)
refers to two different kinds of terrorism:
– (1) terrorism intended to hinder activities
considered harmful to the environment, and
– (2) terrorism intended to damage the
environment of an enemy.
1970s, 80s, & 90s Ecoterrorism
– Began after first Earth Day 1970
– "Arizona Phantom" tore up
railroad tracks and
disabled equipment in an
attempt to stop
construction of a coal mine
in the desert highlands.
– "Eco-Raiders" burned
billboards, disabled
bulldozers, and vandalized
development projects in
and around Tucson,
causing over half a million
dollars of damage - a
group of college students.
1970s, 80s, & 90s Ecoterrorism
• Illinois, a man going by the name of "The Fox"
plugged drainage pipes, capped factory smokestacks,
and dumped industrial waste from a U.S. Steel plant
into the office of the company's chief executive.
• "Bolt Weevils" disabled 14 electrical towers that were
part of a high-voltage power line being built across
the prairie in Minnesota.
Recent Ecoterrorism
• FBI Investigating
Arson; Ecoterrorism
Possible Motive
•
Destroys 41 Homes,
Amounting To $10 Million In
Damage, Indian Head, MD Dec. 7, 2004
• The Sierra Club called the
development
"quintessential sprawl" in
its Fall 2000 sprawl report,
noting it is far from
existing infrastructure and
"threatens a fragile
wetland and important
historical sites near the
Chesapeake Bay."
Recent Ecoterrorism
• Prosecution finishes in
ecoterrorism trial, Tuesday,
November 16, 2004
– LOS ANGELES -- The prosecution rested
Tuesday in the ecoterrorism trial of
Caltech graduate student Billy Cottrell,
closing with DNA evidence linking
Cottrell to a headband found at the
arson scene.
– Several hairs were found on the
headband, which was discovered at the
Clippinger Hummer dealership soon
after the $2.5 million arson fire there on
Aug. 22, 2003.
– Earthfirst!, ELF, or ALF?