Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics must play a key role in the decision making process if we are to promote sustainable use of resources.’ Discuss.

Resources are the fundamental constituent of every economy. They are used to build wealth for the current and future generations. This being said, the extent to which our present resources are being used does not bode well for future generations or developing countries as their fair distribution of limited resources are be used up. It is for this reason that resources should be used sustainably to ensure that we are meeting our present needs without diminishing the aspirations of future generations and not unfairly using resources that developing countries need.

Environmental ethics studies the moral relationship of human beings and the environment. What are the human responsibilities for the natural environment? Does nature have any value beyond providing for human needs? These are the kind of questions that need to be addressed when promoting sustainable use of resources. If humans keep using resources without thinking about what the consequences are then its just using

How can we get any measurement or indication that we are moving in the right direction?

An example of this was highlighted by Garrett Hardin in 1968 in the ‘tragedy of the commons.’

Hardin’s analogy is for the increase in human population and the use of the earths natural resources. He

Individual herdsmen, who are using a commons pasture for grazing their cattle, are faced with the choice whether t add an additional animal to their herd. The negative component of the utility f their choice is potential overgrazing, while the positive component is the proceeds from the sale of the additional animal. Because the positive component is always greater than the negative component (because the effects of overgrazing are shared by all the herdsmen and are therefore relatively small to the individual), the rational herdsmen concludes that the only sensible...