1/10/25 - Environmental Ethics

Environmental protection:

• Decision makers must consider:

  • ethics

  • economics

  • policy

  • scale

• And respond:

  • who is affected?

  • who is to blame?

  • what should be done?

• When global pollution issues occur, these decisions are made more complex due to global differences

Environmental ethics:

• Branch of philosophy that addresses morality concerning the environment

• Deontological ethics: ethical system that is based on duties and rights; this approach was used to establish the environmental policy act of 1970

• Ethical frameworks:

  • Ecocentric

  • Biocentric

  • Anthropocentric

• Intrinsic vs. utilitarian value

  • Utilitarianism can be used where the definition of “what is right” is determined by which actions would bring as much good or as little bad as possible

  • The rightness or wrongness of the action is determined by a balance of good/bad consequences; end had greater moral weight than the means

  • Utilitarianism calculates total benefits/harms experienced by all affected; the one that produces the most benefit should be pursued

  • The precautionary principle: when making a utilitarianism analysis, if you feel that you don’t have all the means to keep people safe, take caution

• Aldo Leopold wrote the land ethic: “you can’t care about the land in one case and pollute/harm land in another case”.

• Intergenerational challenge: Causes and effects of climate change are temporarily diffuse - effects of climate change caused by centuries of emissions

• The ecological challenge: climate change affects all of nature

• The theoretical challenge:

  • international ethics

  • intergenerational ethics

  • ecological ethics

  • scientific uncertainty and risk

Environmental economics

• Connection between environmental and economy

  • When things are purchased, part of the money goes back to the sources and investors that created/financed them

• Economics: supply and demand

  • Demand: how much people are willing to pay

  • Supply: how much of the good is available

  • Ex. oil prices shaped by supply and demand

• Government and markets

  • Market: A system that brings buyers and sellers to exchange goods

  • When goods become scarce in a market economy, prices increase

• Market success: the invisible hand - situations where self-interested behaviors by individuals benefit a society.

• Jevons paradox: efficiency gains in the use of a resources can lower the cost of the resource.

• Tragedy of the commons: overexploitation results on resource degradation