Perspectives on Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainable Living - Prof. W. Kelso, Study notes of Earth Sciences

Download Perspectives on Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainable Living - Prof. W. Kelso and more Study notes Earth Sciences in PDF only on Docsity! Study Guide – Chapter 25 - Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability There are several different environmental worldviews that significantly affect how or if we can conserve the natural resources of the planet. These worldviews depend on people’s environmental ethics, what they believe to be right and wrong with regard to how our actions affect the world we live in. As you can see in Figure 25-2, we can group environmental worldviews into 3 broad categories. The planetary management worldview is probably a dominant worldview among industrial companies in developed countries, i.e., humans should use nature to meet our needs, we can fix all problems, and economies much continue to grow. The stewardship worldview is another human-centered viewpoint that emphasizes “good” management of the world’s resources, environmentally-friendly economic development, and protecting the planet’s life support systems for humans and other living organisms. The environmental wisdom worldview is similar, except that it is not really human-centered, but sees humans as part of nature, not a separate manager of nature. It emphasizes learning how nature works and using these principles as we develop economies based on sustainable use of limited resources (either limited in amount [coal], or limited in quality if not managed properly [water]). Human responses to natural resource problems are diverse; most people believe it is wrong to cause the premature extinction of a species, some because it is a genetically-unique organism shaped by evolution that deserves to exist (intrinsic value), and some because it is or might be of economic value now or in the future (instrumental value). Some people would also assign an ecological value to an organism, recognizing its role in ecosystem function, what the book calls an earth-centered environmental worldview, and how most organisms contribute to the life- support systems on our planet. Note the eight premises that comprise the deep ecology worldview developed by Arne Ness in 1972: 1. All life has value, independent of its usefulness to humans 2. All life is interdependent and contributes to the success of human and non-human life 3. Humans have no right to negatively affect these natural connections except for vital needs 4. Human interference with ecosystem function is excessive and is increasing 5. A decrease in human population size would decrease our interference with life-support functions 6. We therefore need basic changes in technology and economics 7. We must refocus on the quality of life and environmental health rather than accumulating wealth 8. People accepting the previous 7 premises have a moral obligation to work for change Note also Figure 25-4; where do you fit on the ethical ladder, and what do you see as the role of humans on the planet, as well as the goal of human societal development? Education is an important piece of this problem, and as I said in class I think some of this can be traced to the historical trend of urbanization that is still going on today - as people have moved away from nature, they have stopped understanding, or caring, how nature works. We need to understand the planet’s natural capital - the world’s biota and their ecological function. We then need to understand how we are threatening this capital, in small ways (fragmentation of a 1,000-acre forest) as well as huge (global warming) ways, which can only degrade the ability of the planet to support us, or at least provide the quality of life most people want, and provide habitats for every other living organism on the planet. A critical piece of this understanding is the concept of tipping points (remember the threshold effect we talked about in class?); examples include increasing global CO2 concentrations (some climatologists already believe we have exceeded a tipping point, and even if we decrease emissions of greenhouse gasses the planet will continue to warm for centuries because of positive feedbacks), or decreasing the abundance of an organism to its critical population size, a tipping point to extinction. The books points out that we need to promote environmental literacy, focusing on: 1. A respect for all life 2. An understanding of how nature works 3. An understanding of connections among all things in the biosphere (Principle of Ecosystem Relationships?) 4. An understanding of how economic development relates to nature, and how we can have sustainable economic growth 5. Learn how to use environmental information to make wise and informed decisions 6. Understand our environmental worldview and let it evolve throughout our lives 7. Learn how to evaluate good and bad environmental consequences of our actions, and how to avoid the latter with better choices 8. Develop a desire to make the planet better for all living organisms, and make changes that will allow that to happen Interesting questions on p. 666, how would you answer them? Would your answers be different than they were before you took this class? 1. Where do the things I consume come from? 2. What do I know about the place where I live? 3. How am I connected to the earth and other living things? 4. What is my purpose and responsibility as a human being? I think that maybe how people currently respond, or will respond to the conservation issues we have covered in class will be strongly influenced by the sentiments contained in the section on pp. 666 and 667 entitled “We Can Learn from the Earth.” I think Stephen J. Gould said it best; “We will not fight to save what we do not love.” If we continue on the path of divorcing humans from nature, seeking technological fixes to all problems, and pursuing material wealth at all costs to continue economic growth, we will lose much of the natural world that many people, but certainly not all people, cherish. Living more sustainably means respecting nature, and perhaps re-defining what each person wants out of life. Some guidelines are listed in Figure 25-7; how do you think we are doing? Can we get away from needing everything we can afford to by as a measure of happiness? This is a basic tenant of most religions (see p. 668), but the modern world seems hopelessly focused on material wealth as a measure of success. Good question on p. 668 - How Much is Enough? Ever considered this? It goes back to what we talked about early in class; we need to decide where we want to go before we can figure out how to get there. The basis of this class is to get students to consider the natural world, the planet’s life support systems, the value of biodiversity, and the interconnectedness of the world’s ecosystems as they decide where they want to be, and what is important. The greatest impacts we could have on becoming more sustainable would be to: 1. Improve agriculture; conserve soil, reduce inorganic fertilizer use, reduce herbicide and pesticide use and move to agroforestry systems and biological control of pests 2. Improve transportation; develop mass transit systems worldwide, improve the efficiency of cars and move to non-fossil fuel vehicles 3. Improve home energy efficiency; insulate, install efficient windows and lighting fixtures 4. Reduce water use; improve efficiency, recycle water for yard use, install on-demand water heaters, fix leaks, shower with a friend (I just stuck that in there to see if you were still reading) 5. Reduce resource consumption and waste; from food to clothing to energy to cars, but things that last, are more efficient, or can be consumed completely All of these things can help reduce our ecological footprints.