Enviro Ethic Terms

Eco-literate

• a person that lives a way of life that fulfills the needs of your present life while simultaneously supporting nature’s inherent ability to sustain future generations

history of enviro ethics

George Perkins Marsh **

(1801-1882), was the first American "environmentalist" - that is, the first writer to recognize the dangers of the human impact on Nature.

• published 1864 book Man and Nature - explores the impact of humans on the natural environment.

• argues that many past civilizations have collapsed because they over-exploited their resources and warned that the same thing would soon happen to the United States.

Kalambo Falls

the earliest evidence for using fire to clear-cut a forest

most likely for establishing a settlement.

Mohenjo Daro **

2500 BCE

• translates to mound of the dead

• housed approx 5000 citizens

• was part of the largers Harappa civilisation consisting of roughly 35000 people

• grid design + incl advanced + extensive drainage systems that helped with sanitation

Vegetarianism **

• 8th century BCE - prophet Isaiah from Hebrew bible spoke against animal sacrifice + argued for vegeterianism

• John the Baptist was later also a vegetarian.

• Jesus may have been a vegetarian according to srs scholar research.

1300 BCE - hebrew law that indics livestock should be raised with care + slaughtered as humanely as possible

King Ahsoka

of India

• writes seven pillars edict that protects 26 different species

Rome industry + new standard **

the common era

• the Cloaca Maxima (big sewer) + aqueducts invented here to move water in and waste out of the city

• smelting, tanning, metallurgy industries made pollution bad - referred to this air as gravioris caelis/heavy heaven/infamus aer

• new standard of public health thru appoint docs to care for poor, hosps build across empire, sewage sys build

• → standard not seen again in Europe till mid 18th century

aqueduct **

An aqueduct is an artificial channel or conduit designed to transport water from a remote source to a distribution point.

-invented in ancient rome to move water in and waste out of the city

rome law **

• 80 CE: rome passed a law to protect water stores during dry periods

• lead poisoning common cuz used to sweet and from mining

• 535 CE: Emperor Justinian issue legal code that incl: “By the law of nature th3se things are common to mankind: the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the shores of the sea

St Francis of Assisi **

• started the Franciscan Order of Monks that argued for vegetarianism + foughr for animal rights

• wrote poems abt “Brother Sun” + “sister moon” - “Lets picnic in the name of Jesus!”

Leonardo da Vinci **

1452: he is vegetarian

“The time will come when humans will look on the slaughter of beasts as they now look on the murder of men.”

Akbar the Great **

• Muslim emperor in India who established zoos that surpassed the quality of European zoos.

• Various entrances of zoos: “Meet your brothers, take ghem to heart, and respect fhem.”

• → may be first clear distinction between exhibition for education vs entertainment

Industrial Revolution ** need more info

• industrial revolution sped up the environment's decline!

ethical relativism **??? maybe in textbook

history of us enviro ethics

Henry David Thoreau**

• inspired generations of American environmentalists w/ his acc of life (Walden) alone in the woods living off the land except for his mam give him baskets full of pies and doughnuts

• his journal Walden = journal of his alone life in the wilderness of Walden Pond, was best seller and got many Americans thinking abt need to preserve and protect nature

• had very simple life in cabin self built, mostly living off the land.

walden **

• published in 1854, was Henry David Thoreau’s journal of his solitary life in his self-built cabin at Walden Pond

• Bestseller - got many Americans thinking more seriously about the need to preserve and protect nature

transcendentalism

• a religious, philosophical, and literary movement of the 1830s and 1840s that emphasized emotions, intuitions, and feelings over logic, reason, and science.

• partly reaction against industrialization and the "uglification" of the American landscape by factories, railroads, and mills.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• wrote 1836 essay nature

• Nature: world is an a complex system (we would say "ecosystem") and a direct expression of God; it is sacred and must be treated with respect.

• Emerson was predicting the end of American "wilderness" and a time would soon come when all of nature would be tamed and brought under control and would lose its sacredness and become just another resource. 

• “Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is her patience.” 

Gifford Pinchot **

• hugely influenced by Marsh

• (1865-1946, first chief of the US Forest Service)

• big influence on Theodore Roosevelt cuz he was persuaded by Pinchot to establish many national parks and national forests

• pinchot’s followers were "conservationists," wanting to preserve wilderness and resources mainly so they could be better managed for use by future generations,

• had falling out with muir cuz conservationist vs preservationist

• pinchot’s followers were "conservationists," wanting to preserve wilderness and resources mainly so they could be better managed for use by future generations,

John Muir **

• founder of the Sierra Club

• force behind the establishment of Yosemite and other far western national parks

• born in Scotland but grew up in Wisconsin

• studied botany at the Univ of Wisconsin + went to wander around the country - explore wilderness

• walked from IN to FL

• corresponded with Gifford Pinchot

• grad evolved into nationally known conservationist

• he and Pinchot later fell out + rift form among environmentalists cuz conservationist vs preservationist

• Muir's followers were "preservationists," wanting to save the wilderness for its own sake, not because of any usefulness it might have for human beings.

preservationism **

Muir's followers were "preservationists," wanting to save the wilderness for its own sake, not because of any usefulness it might have for human beings.

conservationism **

• pinchot’s followers were "conservationists," wanting to preserve wilderness and resources mainly so they could be better managed for use by future generations,

Aldo Leopold

• a founder of environmental ethics and philosophy.

•  was canoeing around the swamps and creeks of southern Wisconsin. Leopold (1887-1948) was a Forest Service employee (and later a professor of "game management" at the University of Wisconsin)

• wrote essays about the ethics of human's relationship with nature

• A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Rachel Carson **

1907-1964 live

• 1962 - marine biologist Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring. 

• book hit America like a lightning bolt. She demonstrated how chemical pollution was poisoning the air, water, and land (the title refers to the decimation of songbirds by DDT).

• Carson (1907-1964) worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and then became a well-regarded nature writer.

Silent Spring **

• published in 1962 by marine biologist Rachel Carson

• book hit America like a lightning bolt. She demonstrated how chemical pollution was poisoning the air, water, and land (the title refers to the decimation of songbirds by DDT).

•  woke the average American up to the dangers of interfering with ecology. It was directly responsible for several new federal programs, including eventually the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency.

• (DDT was banned too, yet is still used in much of the world).

April 22, 1970 **

• was the day the first and biggest Earth Day held

• People who had been student protestors in the Sixties were now forming communes, going "back to the land," and some of them were going to graduate school, eventually becoming the professors who would teach and write about environmentalism.

DDT

Wu Wei **

• Buddhism and Taosim preach it

• AKA known as natural flow

• “do not mess with it”

radical environmentalism

• anarchism and feminism were becoming major elements of the environmental movement

• Anarchists (especially Murray Bookchin) argued that it was not capitalism or any other ism that was causing ecological disaster - it was "domination" and "hierarchy" or the human desire to dominate and control everyone and everything, nature included.