Environmental Ethics
Shannon Wynn
SOC 120 Intro to Ethics
Carol Bierce
July 12, 2010
Environmental Ethics
“Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its nonhuman content.” Environmental ethics didn't really come as a philosophy until the early 1970's. In the 1960's there was a perception that in the late twentieth century would face a “population time bomb” and a serious environmental crisis. This arose form essays that were published about how pesticides were affecting foods and public health. At the same time other essays were published by a Judeo-Christian, that believed that any thing that was non-human was not of importance to the earth, not animals, plants, birds, or the environment itself. It was believed that humans were not the same as everything else, everything was “ordered to man's use”. Then, in 1972 a professor proposed that trees and other natural objects should hold as much as important as the buildings they want to build when they tear the trees down. From the readings, I can see how in the late 60's to early 70's people seems to start to take a more interest in our environment. It seems as if morally people were starting to see how our environment could be affected by neglect. I believe that this caused a stir and in the 1980's there was a rise of “green' parties in Europe, it instantly caused friction between the “realists” and the “fundamentalists”. Realists wanted to revamp or reform environmentalism. Realists were hoping to work with companies and the government to bring the pollution levels down and show attention to endangered species, whereas fundamentalist wanted a radical instant change. They wanted a whole new set of priorities, along with this wanted to overthrow capitalism which they believed was the major cause of environmental devastation.
I believe there are many reasons to why it...