Environmental Ethics of the US Government - Coursework Example

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS OF UNITED S GOVERNMNET In modern world environmental ethics is very important. It talks about the human considerations towards nature. With the help of environmental ethics analysis it is easily can be understand how different countries in this world are morally sound towards environment. In this assignment environmental ethics of US government will be discussed on the basis of their policies towards environment and on the basis of different US environmental agencies. It will be a systematic step by step approach which will analyze environmental ethics of US Government. This assignment will help to understand different ethical factors of the US Government towards the environment. Introduction Environmental ethics is a portion of environmental philosophy which considers how human being is thinking about non human part of the world. It is a set of values generally followed by human being in the society. Environmental ethics guides how human being in this world should behave to take care for society and environment. Modern world is facing very high level of environmental degradation. Each and every day environment around us is getting polluted due to different irresponsible activities. Especially developed country like United States of America has great responsibility for managing their environmental ethics. Environmental ethics are some principals which guide human being to take care and heal the nature. It is not a very new concept. The concept of environmental ethics came into the picture in 1974. This study will critically analyze the role of human being in the environment. Country like USA has very large population. So the country has very large positive or negative impact on global environment. The country is economic super power of the world. USA consumes 33% of total world’s natural resources. Country’s non renewable energy resource consumption is also very high it is almost 25%. The country has very large contribution in terms of global pollution. It accounts for almost 33% of global environment pollution. The country’s Government agencies are responsible for managing natural resources and environmental issues. This paper will discuss about the whole matter in a step by step fashion. Background It is very important to understand US Government’s environmental ethics. This assignment will give a very brief summary about environmental ethics. It will discuss about different American environmental agencies. This will help to understand thinking process of US Government towards environmental policies. It will give a clear picture about different responsible agencies and about their views towards the whole subject. This will help to study different agencies individually. This individual study will help to understand collective environmental ethics of US Government. This will convey how US Government is utilizing its different agencies for taking care of environmental ethics. This portion of the assignment will also highlight about the concept of environmental ethics. It is very much important to understand different roles and responsibilities of different Governmental environment agencies towards environmental ethics. This portion of the assignment will give a clear view related with the matter. Environmental Ethics Environmental ethics is a part of environmental philosophy. It studies the ethical bonding between human beings and the environment (David, 2010). This philosophy has given a new direction for the conservation of different natural resources. Human being is an important part of the society and there are other important living and non living parts are there in the society. Environmental ethics focuses on human behaviors towards other living and nonliving parts of the society. It can be defined as different ethical decisions human being takes for the sake of environment. Environmental ethics concentrates towards the ethical bonding between human beings and the natural environment. Environmental ethics is an indicator which shows how human being is valuing environment around them. How much importance human being is giving towards environment? Most of the environmental pollutions are being created by human being. Different human activities are the highest contributors for environmental degradation. On the other hand human beings are planting trees also (Andrew, 2012). So, environmental ethics is very important for measuring positive contributions of human being towards the society. Environmental ethics is all about the inclusion of different non-human rights within the consideration of human rights (Joseph, 2012). Environmental ethics talks about equal rights of all creators within the society. In simple human being is the most important part of the society. But others like animal and plants also should have fair share in the society. Environmental ethics always reminds human beings about their duties towards the environment. Environmental ethics can be of different types. It can be anthropocentric which is human centered or it can be non-anthropocentric which is focused towards nature (John, 2013). Anthropocentric concept considers human being as the most important or significant species in the world. On the other hand non-anthropocentric gives other things, apart from human being more importance. US Environmental Agencies United States of America has very strong environment related programs which are governed by different environmental agencies. All these are Governmental agencies. There are five environmental agencies in the country which look after different natural resources and environment related issues. Each and every agency has different and separate roles to play in terms of environmental ethics. Their scopes of works are very distinct from each other. Name of those agencies are 1) Environmental Protection Agency in short known as (EPA), 2) (USFS) full name is United States Forest Service, 3) United States Fish and Wildlife Service in short (USFWS), 4) (NOAA) full name is National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and 5) Bureau of Land Management in short (BLM). Environmental protection agency is the main agency (Patrick and Edward, 2003). The agency was opened in 1970 by the then American president Mr. Richard Nixon. This agency sets different guidelines or standards for other agencies. In 1905 USFS was created. It was related with US agriculture department. Primary objective of the organization is to provide timber and water to the country. In 1946 Bureau of Land Management was created. This agency was a combination of two other agencies known as US Grazing Service and General Land Office. The main objective of the agency is to mange different lands in the country. USFWS was established in 1940. The main purpose of the agency is to maintain sustainability of country’s food resources. In 1970 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was created (Holmes, 2012). The main purpose of the agency is to provide daily weather forecast and monitoring of climate and to provide support to different marine activities. All these agencies over the years have performed their tasks towards environmental ethics. Analysis Here in this section of the study different environmental policies of US agencies will going to be discussed. It is very important to analyze different policies of US environmental agencies. Proper analysis of different policies will help to understand environmental ethics of those organizations. Different policies will give very clear picture about Government’s environmental ethics. It will show Different governmental approaches towards environmental ethics. In this part of the study different mission statements and strategic goals of different environmental agencies will be discussed. All these mission statements and strategic goals will help to understand long term objectives of different agencies related with environmental ethics. Environmental Policy National environmental policy Act is a very important document for country’s environmental policies. In this Act there are three different declarations. Each of those three declarations has given focus towards the development and welfare of human being by managing and restoring the quality of environment. According to those declarations human being and nature must live in a proper harmony. All these documents have given focus towards economical and social requirement of American people. The act has categorically stated that natural resources must be fostered and taken care of for the purpose of human being. It is totally anthropocentric in nature as human being gets instrumental values. Federal Water Pollution Control Act is also a key policy as far as environmental ethics are concerned. This act was created by US Congress. The main objective of this Act is to mange and restore and maintain waters of United States of America. This policy is very help full to protect different aquatic lives. This policy ensures uninterrupted water supplies for industry, human being and agriculture. It can be easily analyzed from this policy that although this policy is designed for aquatic lives but in the end human interests have been given the top most priority. It means this is a human centric policy as well. Clear Air Act is also a very important policy. The act was created for the sake of protecting and improving air resources of the country. This act is very much important to keep air pollution of the country under control. This policy has given lots of importance towards human health. The main objective of this act is to keep the air of the country more clean and pollution free for the people of the country. It is also an anthropocentric policy from US Government. Mission Statements and Strategic Goals For backing up different environmental policies of US Government all the above written agencies have created their mission statements and strategic goals. All these mission statements and strategic goals guide all those agencies very systematically and suitably. Mission statement of Environmental Protection Agency has dual aspects. Dual aspects are, to minimize the risk of people’s health and the protection of environment. Here the mission statement is very much related with environmental ethics in context of human health, agriculture, energy, economic growth and natural resources. Apart from the mission statement the agency has very clear strategic goals set for the period of 2011-2015. Those strategic goals are related with air quality and changing climates, protection of American water and strict enforcement of different environmental law is also an important aspect of those goals. Pollution prevention is also a very important strategic goal of the agency. Community cleaning is also a very significant strategic goal of the same. It is very evident from all these goals that most of them are human centric. The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is very clear that the agency wants to conserve fish, plants and wildlife for the benefit of American people. It also wants to protect these things for the betterment of American citizens. According to its mission statement the agency wants to enhance the provision of these things for the people of the country. It has strategic goal of sustainable conservation of fish and wildlife. Maintaining ecosystem is also a very important strategic goal for the agency. These are all very much anthropocentric. Sustainability in terms of health, productivity and diversity of American forests and its contribution towards human needs is the main idea of United States Forest Service’s mission statement. The agency has seven different strategic goals all those goals are very much citizen centric. According to the mission statement of BLM, its main responsibility is to managing, protecting and improvement of US lands for meeting different needs of American people. Its strategic goals are concerned with grazing, energy resource, recreation and timber farming. This agency is also has anthropocentric environmental ethics. Mission statement of NOAA is very clearly human centered. It focused towards science and technology which can foresee different charges in environment (Matthew, 2011). It provides services to human being by communicating different important information to the people of the country. It also focuses towards different oceanic aspects which can help the citizens of the country. It has a strategic goal which concentrates towards health of American people. It shows this agency also has anthropocentric environmental ethics. Conclusion In this paper different environmental agencies and their environment related policies has been discussed elaborately. In the course of this paper their mission and strategic goals are also being analyzed. Every analysis is showing one thing that US Governmental agencies are having anthropocentric or human centric environmental ethics. In every case agencies have designed their policies by putting human being in the centre of the study. Different agencies have different areas of works. But one thing is common among all those US environmental agencies i.e. human centricity. These Governmental agencies are the images of US Government’s environmental ethics. The reflections are very clear that US Government has anthropocentric environmental ethics for managing natural resource or environmental issues. References Andrew, K. (2012). Environmental Ethics: An Interactive Introduction. Toronto: Broadview Press. David, R. K. (2010). Environmental Ethics: The Big Questions. London: John Wiley & Sons. Holmes, R. (2012). A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millennium for Life on Earth. New York: Routledge. John, B. (2013). Environmental Ethics: An Introduction with Readings. New York: Routledge. Joseph, R. D. J. (2012). Environmental Ethics. London: Cengage Learning. Matthew, J. L. (2011). Encyclopedia of the U.S. Government and the Environment: History, Policy, and Politics, Volume 1. New York: ABC-CLIO. Patrick, D. and Edward, M. (2003). Case Studies in Environmental Ethics. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Read More