Ethics

From year to year, environmental ethical issues have been an issue of both national and international concern. Ethics go beyond actual laws as they are common principles that all people live by, follow or agree upon. Environmental ethics involves the ethical relationships between human beings and the environment or in other terms the morality of peoples actions as they impact on our natural world or the environment. Environmental ethics subject was made into a philosophical discipline in the 1970s following the 1960s awareness concerning the impact that industry, technology, population growth and economic expansion were posing on the environment. This awareness was enhanced by two environment ethics books published in the 1960s The Population Bomb published in 1968 by Paul Ehrlich warning on the effects of an increasing population and the 1962s Silent Spring by Rachael Carson warning of the impact of pesticides use on wildlife. Environment ethics attracted the attention of authorities and activists following the impact that activities such as pollution, ecosystem degradation, declining animal and plant diversity and natural resources depletion. Green issues have thus been a central element in the formulation of public policy to outline the moral obligation of the public as regards to environmental concerns. Environment ethics policy addresses the questions of why and what are the duties humans have in regard to the environment. For instance, the obligations we have for the generation alive in the world today, future generations, or even the entities existing within the environment despite the benefits that human beings derive from the environment.

Anthropocentrism or human centeredness within the issue of environmental ethics denotes a framework of ethics that seeks to solely grant a moral standing to human beings. This implies that the direct obligations that humans have towards the environment are in essence owed to our and future human generations. For the last two decades, the environmental philosophy field has been characterized by the development of ecofenism, animal rights, biocentric ethics and deep ecology theories. These theories have been helpful in exploring the moral and intellectual causes of the economic culture and industrial practices that have proved environmentally destructive.

As the issues of environment ethics are here to stay, future developments ought to appropriately address current and future practices in terms of their relationship with the environment. As noted by Boylan 2001, environment ethical issues are and will be dependent on the changes in political commitment to counter environmental problems. Based on moral obligations, ethicists have made claims of what the world ought to be and also suggest states effectiveness necessary to make this possible. For instance, the Kyoto Protocol is a global attempt to address environmental ethics developed as a result of this. Ethicists have proposed better alternatives for resolving environmental ethical issues such as outlining obligation schemes for individuals and not states rather than castigating them that they associate with the failure. Focus has also been directed towards businesses specifically big businesses in promoting environmental ethics. Basing on the power of consumers, its anticipated that trough this, businesses ethics will then probably address ethical issues similar to environmental ethics. Of late, it is perceived that environment ethics will as well be informed by the scientific understanding that individuals have with regards to the environment. This understanding includes individuals understudying of the working of ecosystems and changes regarding environmental crisis evidence. This change will be expected to influence and inform thinkers and ethics regarding environmental obligations. While not limited to informing business ethics alone, environmental ethics will as well be focused into merging with and feeding into mainstream thinking of ethicists and other individuals. Following this, ethical thinkers will be able to address all ethic areas for the sake of environmental ethics. Such areas are distributive domestic justice, human rights, and distributive global justice. In the light of distributive global justices for instance, individuals will get a clear conception of how a change in climate affects differently people across the world. This will be paramount in considering environmental ethical issues in relation to such matters of justice. This will go a long way in promoting environmental ethics the world over.