ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Global Warming and Environmental Ethics

Global Warming and Environmental Ethics

Introduction

It is a known that the in the 21st century, environmental issues and ethics are one of the major concerns for humanity. This is also becoming evident that the field of sociology can be beneficial in raising awareness regarding the environmental issues and the necessary measures which can reduce or mitigate these problems (Zimmerman et al. 2005).

At the beginning of the 21st century, we can easily say that the people face unprecedented environment problems and even the greatest mass destruction danger (Zimmerman et al. 2005). While natural resources decrease day by day together with the increasing population, the wastes of the productions to meet the increasing consumption make our world uninhabitable (Zimmerman et al. 2005). In this case, we need to face the truth that human beings, encountering a dangerous future, have to take and implement important decisions urgently (Zimmerman et al. 2005). However, many of today's problems are the result of the good faith decisions of the former generations (Zimmerman et al. 2005).

Environmental ethics is a field in applied ethics that ask fundamental questions about humans and the environment. It examines the moral basis of environmental responsibility (Zimmerman et al. 2005. Environmental ethics is a diversified discourse with competing different ideas and perspectives (Zimmerman et al. 2005).

Discussion

While the discourse on environmental management has, to a larger extent, gathered momentum, in the last couple of years, most of the issues raised have centered on solving the problem at national and global levels without seriously considering the contribution(s) of the 'grassroots communities'. Issues of global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, acid rains, famine and other such natural and human induced disasters have dominated most philosophical discourses and researches.

Global climate effects are already apparent. Arctic warm season sea ice has decreased more than 30 percent over the past few decades (Hawken 1993). Mountain glaciers are receding rapidly all over the world. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are shedding mass at an accelerating rate, already several hundred cubic kilometers per year. Climate zones are shifting pole ward. The subtropics are expanding. Climate extremes are increasing. Today's young people and succeeding generations would be faced with continuing climate change and climate impacts that would be out of their control (Hawken 1993). Our World has gone through several climatic changes throughout out its life. Everybody knows that global warming is neither new nor unusual. Global warming is a serious problem which is threatening the existence of our civilization. The change in the global climate would largely change the typical weather conditions.

Since the onset of the industrial revolution, human activities have altered the atmospheric composition of the Earth, significantly impacting the terrestrial energy balance. The burning of fossil fuels has significantly increased the amount of particulate matter and concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs), most notably carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), into the atmosphere (Hawken 1993). The overall impact of human industrial activities on global climate has a pronounced warming effect, ...