Environmental Ethics of Cleaning up the Oceans - Term Paper Example

Environmental Ethics of cleaning up the Oceans Environmental Ethics of cleaning up the Oceans Introduction Oceans are the greatest unifiers for global humankind. Oceanic waters absorb most of the carbon dioxide that is released to the atmosphere, because of industrial and agricultural activities going on in almost all parts of the world, particularly the coastal areas. In addition, they provide employment opportunities to millions of people across the world, while helping the human kind with necessary protein diet taken from the fish and other marine creatures. This has added to the growth of GDP for many nations. Although humanity has exploited seas and oceans for its own selfish reasons, the absence of any serous efforts to take care of these bountiful natural resources is saddening. There are many reasons to affirm that all citizens of this world have ethical and moral responsibility to maintain the oceanic health, starting with the cleaning of its waters. Since, ages oceans have provided around half of the required oxygen to all living bodies on earth. Nevertheless, the detection of Dead Zones in several seas and oceans reveal that the marine life within such zones is starving for oxygen. This is mainly due to large scale dumping of agricultural and industrial waste into the oceanic waters. The exploitation of oceans has resulted in extinction of many races of sharks and other predatory fishes along with other species like turtles. Hence, it is the moral responsibility of all global citizens to gear up the efforts towards aggressive ocean cleaning. Thesis statement There are many ethical concerns that warrant the cleaning of oceanic waters, on a continuous basis. Our moral duties Various moral theories come up when discussing about the moral responsibility of human kind in saving the environment of this planet. However, main aspects of moral theory include the issues related to sustainability, compassion and participation. It is the duty of every citizen of world to ensure that all creatures and human beings are treated equally. The sustainability is the extension of this moral obligation, which defines the purpose of meeting the requirements of present generation, while ensuring that future generations are able to meet their needs sufficiently. It is in this context that human kind needs to understand its moral duty towards the preservation for oceanic marine life, which is one of the important supporters of human life system. If the ocean waters are not clean, the formation of dead zones will be frequent. This will deprive these waters of the vibrant marine life. We need to preserve marine life for the sake of our present and future generations. The action, which ensures that every one gets sufficient quantity of goods required to live in a decent manner relates to the sufficiency and compassion theory of moral duty. Hence, it is essential that every citizen avoid wasting of any source that can be of use to creatures of this planet. In other words, the actions that lead to the devastation of ocean marine life are against such moral principles. While discussing environmental ethics, it is significant that everyone shares the responsibility of maintaining the natural balance. The non-human creatures and plants are the most valuable treasures of our oceans and it is our moral duty to ensure that the cycle of life under the oceanic water is not disturbed. Polluting these waters with human-made trash and waste can have disastrous impact on present and future generations.(Warner) Oceans play an important part in the lives of all earthlings, irrespective of the fact whether they live in coastal areas or far away from seas. The fact that oceans provide almost 50 percent oxygen consumed by the earth’s creatures reminds every citizen of this planet to remain morally bound towards keeping oceanic waters clean. In addition, oceans absorb almost 25 percent of carbon, which finds its way to the atmosphere due to the human activities across the world. Seawaters are a source of employment generation for millions of people, while they contribute to the global economy in billions of Dollars. These facts are sufficient to warn the humankind against treating oceans as dustbins for our agricultural and industrial waste. Business enterprises also have moral and ethical responsibility to keep the oceans in good health. For example, fish production can increase significantly with the improvement involving technology of aquaculture. This will save oceans from further massive exploitation. .(Rechberger) Following paragraphs briefly discuss few of the ethical issues concerning ocean Dumping of plastic trash into seas One of the most important factors responsible for making the oceanic waters murky is the plastic garbage dumping. Although the plastic goods take ages to biodegrade, they turn into smaller fragments very quickly. Different scientific studies reveal that very thin plastic products, measuring around 10 mm in size are scattered all across the oceanic waters. In certain oceanic pockets, where such concentration is heavy, the creation of large garbage patches, below the surface result in sharp fatalities of the present marine creatures. The basic fact that use of plastic bottles by humankind has increased several times has given rise to stop the habit of dumping such waste in the oceanic waters. As prevention is better than cure, this step will help more than deploying the plastic cleaning machines. In fact, mooring ships and large floating brooms deployed for this purpose may result in creating more pollution dumps under the seawaters. Mooring ships sometimes work as shredders for heavy plastic goods in oceanic waters and brooms help them to flock together, creating a bigger garbage patch. (Maqueda) Creation of Dead Zones Small water bodies formed within an ocean or lakes and rivers are called dead zones. However, formation of most dead zones occurs in oceans and seas. The cause of such formations is the excess growth of algae in certain pockets of oceanic water, which causes depletion of oxygen levels under the water surface. Due to lack of oxygen, the marine life is not able to sustain, in these pockets. The agricultural waste that include nitrogen and phosphorus compounds are responsible for this phenomenon, while the industrial and vehicular emissions also play an important role in the formation of dead zones. The earliest dead zones detection goes back to 1970s, when these were found in certain areas of Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Northern Adriatic. The further study on the causes of such Oxygen depriving water zones could be linked more to the carelessness of human beings, as they discharge the agricultural and industrial waste into oceanic waters. Human kind owes it to nature for preserving what it has given us in abundance. Hence, it is the moral duty of every person to ensure that such waste is treated properly before discharging it into the oceans. There is enough evidence that dead zones are also present off the coasts of Virginia and Oregon.(Paine) However, efforts are going on to clean the dead zones and make these water pockets vibrant with marine life. Development of treatment plants for this purpose is a positive step in this direction. The process involves breaking the nitrogen present in water into nitrous oxide. This saves the dead zones from depletion of oxygen levels, while the nitrous oxide can be used as fuel to meet the power demands. However, the need for installation of such plants shall not arise if the human kind is aware of its moral responsibility to save the oceans from such hazards. Smaller treatment plants can ensure that the waste going into oceanic waters is free from nitrogen and phosphorous compounds.(Bailey) Decreasing Sea Turtle population Since ages, turtles have helped in maintenance of productive coral reef ecosystem and transportation of useful nutrients from under seawaters to coastal dunes. Such activities help in keeping the oceans healthy. However, the human activities like over-fishing, dumping of plastic and industrials waste have caused sharp decline in the turtle populations. This has the negative impact on the ocean ecosystems. Hence, it remains a vital ethical issue while discussing the environmental aspects of ocean cleaning. As sea turtles help in maintenance of healthy grass beds under the sea, they provide the necessary habitat for other creatures of sea. Turtles also help in transporting nutrients from oceanic waters to coasts. However, the decreasing population of sea turtles has resulted in lesser formation of food webs and healthy sea grass. This means reduced availability of healthy sea fish from such areas. The significance of sea turtles’ contribution to environmental health of oceans has come to notice recently in areas like Florida Bay and Gulf of Mexico, where sea grass availability has reduced drastically.(Wilson et al) Conclusion Different ethical issues concerning environmental pollution have significance when discussing about cleaning of oceanic waters. As humankind has exploited resource of oceans and seas since ages, it is high time that efforts are made to clean these large natural resources and save them from forming dead zone pockets. Stoppage of agriculture and industrial dumping into oceanic waters can achieve this, as marine life under the waters can have enough oxygen required to maintain healthy balance. Works cited Bailey, PF, “Cleaning Up ecological Dead Zones”, Planetforward.org, 21 Nov.2012, web, 12 Dec. 2014: Maqueda. M, “Those Crazy Plastic Machines”, Plastic pollution, KUMU, 27 March 2013, web, 12 Dec. 2014 Paine, Victor, “What Causes Ocean “Dead Zones”?”, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, 25 Sep.2012, web, 12 Dec. 2014: Rechberger,Kristin, “Ocean conservation for entrepreneurs”, Virgin unite, 4 June 2014, web, 12 Dec. 2014: Warner. D. K, “Using Ethical Principles in Moral Reasoning About the Environment”, SANTA CLARA University, May 2009, web, 12 Dec. 2014: Wilson. E. G. et al, “WHY HEALTHY OCEANS NEED SEA TURTLES?”, Oceana.org, nd, web, 12 Dec. 2014 Read More