A Thought to Environmental Ethics - Research Paper Example

?Ethics Theory and Practice A Thought to Environmental Ethics Introduction: The term ‘ethics,’ is also known as morality or moral philosophy. It involves the concept of what is right and what is wrong. While bringing up in a certain society everyone wants to be a good person. There are certain rules and regulations the human beings are supposed to follow. It is to create the harmony in the society and the atmosphere in which the person dwells. Some moral principles are there in every culture and being a responsible element of the society the person needs to follow these codes of conducts. While explaining the term ‘ethics,’ Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer state, “Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.” [1] The practice of theory is not confined to a particular terminology, but it is a very comprehensive concept. Some people misinterpret ethics by associating the term with religion. But the theory of ethics is applicable everywhere, where there is a question of right or wrong conduct. For example ethics in plea for euthanasia in medical field, corporate contribution in political campaign, ending of capital punishment, media and its responsibility, treatment given to the animals and many more. Here in our paper we are going to discuss about the environmental ethics. It is one of the sensitive topics and a major concern for the scientists and the common people. Keywords: ethics, morality, comprehensive concept, environmental ethics. Environmental Ethics is a philosophical discipline which has emerged in 70s. It was because the technological leap was at the highest point and the topic of environmental loss had become an alarming topic. On the background of this concern, Rachel Carson wrote a book called “Silent Spring.” In the book she warned her audience the potential dangers caused by using the chemical pesticides. In the course of period, due to number of reasons, the degradation of environment has become a common phenomenon on our planet. Our planet is the only planet in the entire solar system, which has the existence of living being. It is a beautiful planet occupied by rich flora fauna. Earth is the magnificent existence of ecological system. The living creatures on the earth have a long history of millions of years. Human being is one of the animals on the earth who co-inhabit the planet with around 5 to 10 million species. The extinction of species on the earth has been a natural phenomenon right from the emergence of the living being. Millions of years ago, the mammoth creature on the earth i.e. dinosaur, became extinct from the earth. “The eminent Harvard zoologist, E. O. Wilson, warns that we may be in the midst of the greatest "extinction spasm" since the dinosaurs disappeared sixty million years ago. This biological catastrophe is due to the expansion of human populations and industry and the consequent demand on natural resources.”[2] The quality of human life depends upon the environmental quality. Our standard of living will increase by using good quality things and for acquiring these good quality things, we have to preserve our natural resources. The natural resources such as soil, water, air, photosynthesis climate are the matters of life and death. Hence the application of ethics is essential in respect to the environment. There are many environmental concerns due to the unethical behaviour of human being for the environment. The animals are slaughtered; deforestation has become the common phenomenon especially to fulfil the residential need of the urban areas. Animals are being hunt just for merriment. The decreasing population of the tigers and other species are really concerning. Who gave human being the right to take away the life of innocent animals, birds just for entertainment? Earth has been threatened by the interference of human being in ecological system. Due to industrialization and technological advancement, human being, despite being one of the parts of ecological system, has been going further from nature. The technology has given him more knowledge and with this knowledge he is trying to control the natural processes and thus manage them according to his wish. It has resulted into the natural imbalance. Moral Ground on Environmental Ethics: The term ethics is associated with the obligations to the human activities and a certain code of conducts to control the activities, so that the social harmony would remain intact. In the context of environmental ethics the simple question arises, what are the obligations towards the environmental ethics? The simple answer of this question is if the environment will end, the life of human being will also stop. This is absolutely an ethical concern as it has emerged from the human point of view. But this concern can better be called an anthropocentric concern. It means that in this concern, only the human beings are taken into consideration. But according to some critics the environmental ethics must go beyond humanity. Examples of lack of consciousness about the Environmental Ethics: For the better human life we are literally scratching our nature. The thirst for establishing power in the world, man is going to ruin the Earth. The periodically happenings of small or major wars, the environment is at stake due to the use of chemicals in weapons. The exposure of depleted uranium has resulted into potential health risk. The drinking water becomes contaminated due the bomb blasts or bullet damage. In Afghanistan the resources of drinking water decline due to the war and the weapons used in war. The marine life flora and fauna are also in danger due to the hazardous wars taking place in every parts of the world. In African continent also many wars have been taking place. Among them some are civil wars while some of them occurred between two countries. The environmental loss includes the biodiversity loss, famine, sanitation problem and over fishing. It is also very shocking that the populations of elephants is declining surprisingly. It is mainly because of ivory poaching. Farmars burn the substantial part of forest for making it a farmland. The man has become so greedy. He wants to be more and more rich and for that he is attacking the precious things available with the other animals, such as the ivory of elephants, the skin of tigers and other animals, the musk deer and many more innocent animals are being killed for petty and mean ambitions of human beings. Musk Deer is killed for the strong smelling secretion produced by its gland. In black market the scent gland can give the price up to $45,000 per kg. The musk is so valuable and the increasing demand of musk has resulted into decreasing the population of musk deer from the earth. Some blind beliefs compel human being to destroy certain animals. For example, in some community snake is supposed to be the most dreadful animal. It is associated with the blind belief that it takes revenge on man by biting him and spreading poison in human body. So when the snake appears, people tend to crush it ruthlessly. Actually snake is one of the very useful animals for human being. It eats rats and thus helps the farmers to preserve grain. It is killed out of misconception. In some Indian community there is an auspicious day on which people worship for snake by offering him milk and other food. For this day many snakes are caught and they are mercilessly treated by the snake charmers. It is necessary that these uneducated people should be awakened for following environmental ethics. Dolphins are being brutally killed by the people in Denmark. The country with high standard and cultured population even cannot assure the environmental ethics. Hundreds of Dolphins are dead for the sake of a ritual performed by the teenagers. The people here are far away from consciousness that this is a brutal act and it must be stopped. How can the rituals be more important than the lives of the creatures? The environmental ethics is based on the conception that for your selfish deed you have no rights to snatch away the life of other living creature of the earth. We often hear about the attack of leopards on human habitation. It was recent news that the leopard attacks 42 years old man near Katarniaghat sanctuary in India [3] The attacks by leopards have been a common phenomenon in Indian villages. The attacks generally happen on the edge of the forest reserves. The hungry leopards have killed lot of people. It wanders the village and takes the life of several people. If human being had followed the rules of nature, he would have never been faced such situation. The attacks are happening due to the encroachment of human on the leopard ecosystem. Being the most intelligent creature on the planet it is our responsibility that we should understand the problems of these animals who cannot express themselves in words. It is the indication of tremendous stress the animals are going through. While thinking about the safety of human beings, is it not our responsibility to think about the predicament of the wild animals that are yearning for their existence. We human beings are directly and indirectly associated with their condition. The scarcity of food makes them to attack on human beings. The excessive hunting of animals has led to the scarcity of food for the carnivorous animals. Their pray are being snatched away from them by human beings. To survive themselves, what should they do? They have to attack on human beings. Smuggling of sandalwood is also one of the worst activities of man. It is prevalent in South India as this region is rich with the jungles of sandal trees. The greediness has captured the human mind in such a manner that they even do not think it immoral to cut down the sandal trees. Immoral in the sense those trees also are the living organism, and when we cut them they might be undergoing through tremendous sufferings. The crude oil is used excessively without thinking about the future generation. The natural resources are limited but there is no limit to human greed. Towards Environmental Ethics The first moral principle related to environment is that man should give up self-centred approach. The moral standing should be extended to the species, animals living on this planet. The status of animals is equally important. Environmental ethics is to create awareness. The environmental ethics includes the welfare of all non human things. For example, if deforestation for the sake of human welfare is good for both short term and long term basis, it is definitely injurious to the animals. Even if the activity is beneficial for human beings it should not be worked out because the ethics tell that the animal welfare is equally important. When man chops down the tree, neither any individual is harmed by neither this activity, nor it makes any difference to the animal. But still we strongly feel that the man has made mistake by cutting down the tree. This inner feeling is comprehensive which includes the privilege of living to other living organism on the Earth. In urban areas, crowded cities, the trees are cut down for building houses, widening roads and developing advance infrastructure. The morality towards environment tells us that it is not good for human existence as well as it is not moral. For our comfort we have no rights to perish other living things of the nature. The factors, such as pollution, global warming, are there and they are equally important. But they are human centric. But when we think from morality point of view the thinking process extends to sufferings of other living organism on our planet. Environmental ethics is that we must take into account the interest and needs of other living organism when we formulate moral obligation. “The theory of evolution would seem to predict, however, that the selfish would outcompete the selfless in the “struggle for existence,” and thus survive and produce in greater numbers.” [4] The environment ethics will be followed by human beings if 1. He stops interfering in natural process and ecological system. 2. He stops making extensive changes in environment for his selfish deed. 3. He stops manipulating natural resources which will threaten the life of the living organism on the earth. 4. Logical thinking should be developed among the people and thus our ecosystem should be preserved. Animals never interfere in human life. Unless they feel insecure, they never attack on human. It is the moral responsibility of human being to make them feel secure, and to give them their right of living. Man should have the cognizance that the earth is not the property of only human being. It belongs to the entire living organism. As stated by Rachel Carson, “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” [5] Live and let live, it is the bottom principle of moral ethics towards environment. Man should be aware of it and take initiative in maintaining harmony in the nature. “Ethics is significantly a matter of respecting others for what they are in themselves, apart from my self-interests, That is altruism.” [6] Sources: 1. Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer, “What is Ethics?” appeared originally in Issues in Ethics IIE V1 N1, Fall 1987, revised on 2010) 2. ‘Section Introductions from Environmental Ethics: Approaches and Issues, An unpublished Textbook Anthology’ taken from the website: http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=%22this+biological+catastrophe+is+due+to+the+expansion+of+human%22+%22this+biological+catastrophe+is+due+to+the+expansion+of+human%22&d=4805282854799207&w=495ae46,cdcfb515 3. November10, 2011, The Times of India, Allahabad, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-10/allahabad/30381985_1_leopard-attacks-katarniaghat-forest-department-officials 4. Pg. 118, J. Baird Callicott, “Holistic Environmental Ethics and the Problem of Ecofascism 5. The quote of Rachel Carson http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/15332.Rachel_Carson) 6. Holmes Rolston, III Environmental Ethics, pg 522, http://lamar.colostate.edu/~rolston/ee-blackwell-comp.pdf. Read More