Environmental Ethics

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Environmental Ethics explores the moral obligations and responsibilities humans have towards the environment and the natural world.

Environmental Ethics: It is the study of ethical values and principles in relation to the natural environment.
Environmental Activism: It is the attempt to influence public policy and business practices regarding environmental issues.
Environmental Justice: Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Sustainability: It is the ability of an ecosystem or a system to maintain or improve its productivity, functionality, and biodiversity over time.
Climate Change: It is the long-term alteration of Earth's climate and weather patterns due to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Ecological Literacy: It involves the understanding of the principles of ecology and the interdependence of all living things.
Environmental Economics: It is the study of how economic activities interact with and affect the environment.
Environmental Law: It is a branch of law that deals with environmental issues, including pollution control, natural resource management, and environmental protection.
Sustainability Reporting: Sustainability reporting is the practice of measuring, disclosing and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organizational performance towards the goal of sustainable development.
Ethical Journalism: Ethical journalism is the practice of following principles of conduct and an ethical code to ensure responsible and accurate reporting.
Environmental Education: It is teaching the public about environmental issues and how to take action to protect the environment.
Corporate Social Responsibility: It is a company's responsibility to have a positive impact on society through its business activities.
Animal Rights: Animal rights is the belief that animals have the same rights as humans when it comes to freedom from suffering and exploitation.
Renewable Energy: Renewable energy is energy that comes from sources that are naturally replenished, like solar, wind, and hydro energy.
Biodiversity: It is the variety of living organisms in an ecosystem, including plants, animals, and microorganisms.
Anthropocentric Environmental Ethics: This type of environmental ethics places human interests and well-being as the primary concern. It holds that all environmental factors should be evaluated in terms of how they benefit or harm human beings.
Biocentric Environmental Ethics: This type of environmental ethics places equal importance and intrinsic value to all living organisms. The focus is on preserving and protecting the diversity and integrity of ecosystems, habitats, and species, not just human needs.
Ecocentric Environmental Ethics: In this type of environmental ethics, the environment is valued and respected for its own sake, independent of human needs or interests. It recognizes that all living and non-living entities are interconnected and interdependent and should be protected and sustained for their own value.
Theocentric Environmental Ethics: This type of environmental ethics is based on a religious or spiritual approach and emphasizes the responsibility of humans towards the environment and other creatures as a mandate of God or a divine entity.
Feminist Environmental Ethics: This type of environmental ethics asserts that gender, social justice, and ecological issues are mutually reinforcing and call for a review of traditional male-dominated structures that result in environmental degradation.
Post-modern Environmental Ethics: This type of environmental ethics challenges the traditional ethical frameworks and seeks alternative paths to address the global ecological crisis, particularly through cultural diversity and creative approaches.
- "Environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy... Ethics exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography."
- "The main competing paradigms are anthropocentrism, physiocentrism (called ecocentrism as well), and theocentrism."
- "These decisions raise numerous questions."
- "Should humans continue to clear cut forests for the sake of human consumption?"
- "Why should humans continue to propagate its species, and life itself?"
- "Should humans continue to make gasoline-powered vehicles?"
- "What environmental obligations do humans need to keep for future generations?"
- "Is it right for humans to knowingly cause the extinction of a species for the convenience of humanity?"
- "How should humans best use and conserve the space environment to secure and expand life?"
- "What role can Planetary Boundaries play in reshaping the human-earth relationship?"
- "The academic field of environmental ethics grew up in response to the works of Rachel Carson and Murray Bookchin and events such as the first Earth Day in 1970..."
- "Two papers published in Science had a crucial impact: Lynn White's 'The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis'... and Garrett Hardin's 'The Tragedy of the Commons'..."
- "An essay by Aldo Leopold in his A Sand County Almanac, called 'The Land Ethic,' in which Leopold explicitly claimed that the roots of the ecological crisis were philosophical."
- "The first international academic journals in this field emerged from North America in the late 1970s and early 1980s..."
- "The US-based journal Environmental Ethics in 1979..."
- "The Canadian-based journal The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy in 1983."
- "The first British-based journal of this kind, Environmental Values, was launched in 1992."