ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Environmental Issues

Environmental Issues

Introduction

First of all, science and ethics are very much interdependent areas of human endeavor. Ethics without science is at best uninformed and at worst delusive, while science without ethics is at best unguided and at worst downright dangerous. Perhaps the clearest principle regarding the connection between science and ethics is “ought” suggests “can”. “halt continental drift” will not be an ethical mandate! While one might pontificate that we “ought” to stop the “homogenization” of the world's ecosystems or heritage, it may be certain thing we just will not prevent. In a broader context, Kenneth Boulding (unknown) said: “The most worrying thing about the earth is that there seems to be no way of preventing it from becoming one world.”

Traditional advances To Environmental Ethics

Once we have chewed on these basic ideas we are still faced with the problem of choosing what to do. Do we all have to become philosophers in order to make ethical decisions? No, we do not; at least not in an academic sense. Remember, just because one might have a Ph.D. in Ethics doesn't make one ethical! Yet, we all can become better thinkers and better at ethical analysis. Mortimer Adler (1991) expresses Aristotle's insight when he says the ethical person is one who has "the habit of right desire", implying that we can develop through coaching and practice the skills necessary for ethical thinking. So, let's look at a few approaches to ethics as simplified by Marvin Brown (2003). He recognizes three approaches that we use in everyday life and suggests we invoke all of them in performing an ethical analysis.

One approach to ethics he calls the “Ethics of Consequences”. Here one focuses on the actual or projected results of an action or proposal. This is certainly relevant to our topic and places a fairly heavy emphasis on “science” to assess the feasibility and consequences of a proposal. Based on the “utilitarian” approach of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and applied by Gifford Pinchot, it has become a dominant theme in the assessment of public policy through economic cost-benefit analysis and more recently risk analysis. The ethical concept here is maximum “happiness”, “welfare”, or “utility” and is traditionally characterized by the phrase “the greatest good for the greatest number.”

Asecond approach to ethics dark calls the “Ethics of Principle”. Sometimes we need to focus on the act itself, regardless of the consequences. Has some ethical principle been violated? Usually this approach recognizes limits to “the greatest good for the greatest number” as society defends personal freedoms and rights against the potential tyranny of the majority. The ethics of principle focuses on mutual respect and might be characterized as “the golden rule”. Concepts of “justice” and “fairness” weigh heavily here.

Athird approach to ethics is called the “Ethics of Purpose”. Here one focuses on the person (or agency) doing the act and asks whether it is consistent with his or her (or agency's) role at the time, or the fulfillment of their ...