We’ve all been told that protecting the environment is of the utmost importance, but do we ever stop and question why that is? What is it exactly about nature that we are trying to preserve? Is it the same for everyone? Does it matter why we are motivated, as long as we are helping in the end?
These are questions addressed by the field of environmental ethics.
This branch of philosophy focuses on the ideals and viewpoints found within the realm of the environmental movement. Environmental philosophers examine what shapes society’s opinions on nature, and what the consequences of those viewpoints are.
Here at ESU you can take Environmental Ethics with Professor Charles Brown in the Social Sciences department. I was able to take the class last year and it drastically altered the way I view environmentalism.
With any action, it’s pivotal that we understand our self-interest in the issue. Why do we care about this issue, in this case the environment? What does it mean to us?
Enviro-ethics tries to answer that question by presenting a variety of reason and logic based arguments designed to prove that nature should be revered and protected for its own right, not just because of what it has to offer us as humans.
Enviro-ethics would say that nature is good, not because of its use usefulness to humans, but due to its own inherent qualities. Nature, by the way, is defined as all that is subject to a life, to put in ethics terms. That would include all animals, plants, and ecosystems that exist throughout the planet.
And all things should be equal under the eyes of the planet. A snail, though it gives humans little benefit, is just as valuable as fossil fuels.
Environmental philosophers draw parallels between man’s domination over nature to man’s domination over the female gender, and over ethnic minorities.
The same kind of mindsets that once kept women and minorities from attaining their fully deserved rights are still present in the way we view nature. In the same way we expanded our scope on women and minorities, so should we expand our scope of nature.
This might all sound like a lot of over analysis to some of you. I feel it is important to examine our motivations to a micro level, to better understand why we do what we do.
That being said, there is something to be said about the ends justifying the means. If someone was recycling, but didn’t agree to the tenets of environmental ethics, I wouldn’t stop them from turning in their cans and bottles.
Right now the environmental movement needs all the support it can get, regardless of the reason behind it.
If this is something you’d like to learn more about I highly recommend taking Environmental Ethics with Brown. Also, Environmental Club and Philosophy Club are teaming up for a joint discussion on the morality of environmentalism at 7 p.m. next Tuesday at Javacat.
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