Perspectives

Environmental Ethics is the first environmental studies class I have taken throughout my college career.  I used to think that environmental ethics was about stopping pollution, recycling and "saving the planet" but each day in this class opens up a new world of knowledge that shows me environmental ethics is so much more.  Every environmental situation can be interpreted in multiple ways because people have many different viewpoints and perspectives on environmental ethics. 

Environmental ethics can be viewed from a religious viewpoint.  There are many different religious denominations which results in a wide variety of religious viewpoints on environmental issues.  Some themes that seem to appear throughout these perspectives include respecting God’s creation, value all forms of life and humans are to protect and care for God’s creations. 

Environmental ethics can be viewed from a utilitarianism perspective which states that one should act in a way which creates the greatest good for the greatest number of people.  In relation to ethics, if the act maximizes good consequences then it is ethically right.  One problem with this perspective however is that even acts which may harm one species can be considered ethical if they benefit other species.

Environmental ethics can be viewed from an anthropocentric, nonanthropocentric, or a holistic perspective.  An anthropocentric perspective views humans as the only living things with moral value.  Nonanthropocentric ethics gives moral value to all natural objects.  Finally, holistic ethics states that we have moral responsibilities to collections of individuals rather than those individuals the make up the collection.  I feel that my environmental ethic beliefs would match most closely with holistic ethics.  I believe that it would be nearly impossible to show moral responsibility to each individual in a collection but rather we must focus on collections as a whole and maintain the “integrity, stability and beauty” of that collection.

These are just a few of the many environmental ethic viewpoints and perspectives.  The large number of different perspectives shows how complex environmental ethics can be.  We must find a way to agree on important ethical issues in order to preserve our planet and its inhabitants.