ENVIRONMENTAL

ETHICS
GROUP 6:
Reclusado, Denise Nickole S.
Ducusin, Mark Joseph
Cariño, Lovely Joy
Quilon, Mariano Jr.
Arcena, Jaquelyn
Garcia, Jellaine
Pacleb, Mayflor
Rosales, Jay Mark
INTRODUCTION
Enviroethics or environmental ethics (EE) is a
part of environmental philosophy that extends
the traditional boundaries of ethics from only
including humans to including the non-human
world. It has come to exert significant influence
over a number of human science disciplines
including Theology, Law, Economics, Sociology,
Ecology, and Geography in relation to
sustainability and human well-being.​.
 INTRODUCTION
Humans are part of nature and must learn how to behave towards one other and
interact with the environment.

There are three distinct levels or systems of being in nature, including social, biological
and physical. Each level or system of being obeys its own laws in addition to other levels.
“They are, in reverse order:
(a) the physical planet, its atmosphere, hydrosphere (waters), and lithosphere (rocks and
soils), all of which obey the laws of physics and chemistry;
(b) the biosphere, all living species, which obey the laws of physics, chemistry, biology
and ecology;
(c) the technosphere and sociosphere, the human created world of buildings and
machines, governments and economies, arts and religions and cultures, which obey
physical, chemical, biological and ecological laws, and also further laws of human design.”
 DEFINITION

Environmental​
Relating to the natural world and the impact of
human activity on its condition.​

Ethics​
Is based on well-founded standards of right and
wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do,
usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to
society, fairness, or specific virtues.​
.
 DEFINITION

Environmental Ethics​
Environmental ethics is a branch of applied
philosophy that studies the conceptual foundations
of environmental values as well as more concrete
issues surrounding societal attitudes, actions, and
policies to protect and sustain biodiversity and
ecological systems.​
 BACKGROUND​
Although nature was the focus of much nineteenth and twentieth
century philosophy, contemporary environmental ethics only
emerged as an academic discipline Thein thefaces
globe 1970s. The
a number of questioning
severe environmental
and rethinking of the relationshipconcerns
of human that beings
endangerwith the
ecosystems, human
health, and global stability. Rising temperatures,
natural environment over the lastharsh
thirty years reflected an already
weather, and melting ice caps are all
widespread perception in the 1960s that theoflate
consequences twentieth
climate change, which is
produced by greenhouse gases. Pollution, which
century faced a human population explosion as part of a serious
includes contamination of the air, water, and soil,
environmental crisis.​ is harmful to both wildlife and humans.
 WHY MUST WE LEARN ABOUT
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS?​
Environmental ethics is quite important because it serves as the moral ground to protect our
planet’s environment and continuously fix the environmental degradation that we have caused
over the years. The globe faces a number of severe environmental
concerns that endanger ecosystems, human
Through environmental ethics, we are being reminded
health,ofand
our global
environmental
stability. responsibilities and
Rising temperatures,
our ecological consciousness is being awakened. harsh
Without environmental
weather, ethics, people
and melting ice caps would
are all
continue to degrade and destroy our planet and live life as if theyofareclimate
consequences not dependent
change,on which
nature. ​is
produced by greenhouse gases. Pollution, which
But with the ecological consciousness provided by environmental
includes ethics,ofwe
contamination thecanair,lead towards
water, a
and soil,
sustainable future, an ecological balance, and theisenrichment of our
harmful to both environment’s
wildlife and humans. diversity.​
 PRINCIPLES/APPROACHES

There are several approaches or principles to determine how we are to value our
environment. It is such a huge field, and it is so vast that it is difficult for one
principle to cover all the ground. Many theories have emerged over the years, and
each one has stressed various principles of environmental ethics. The list below
states all the principles that have been predominantly found in those theories:​
 ANTHROPOCENTRICISM
it means human centered and as such can refer broadly
to a particular worldview, value or attitude.

In environmental ethics, it refers to the view that only

humans have moral status or are intrinsically valuable. The
nonhuman natural objects (such as the animals, the plants,
and the environment) have no intrinsic or inherent worth;
they matter only inasmuch as they benefit or serve the
interests of human beings.

Save Energy Plant Trees

 ANTHROPOCENTRICISM
Anthropocentrism is premised on the idea that moral
status lies on one’s rationality. Humans are autonomous,
capable of reasoning, and in particular of reasoning about
right and wrong. As such, human beings alone can enter
into agreements with and reciprocate one another.
Nothing else has such capacities, and since these are the
capacities that underpin moral status, only humans have
moral status.

Western Philosophical Traditions supports the

anthropocentric view. Aristotle spoke of nonhuman
creation as a resource to serve human needs
 ANTHROPOCENTRICISM
St. Thomas Aquinas view of the natural environment as created at the service of
human beings
Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas held these positions because they believed that
only human beings have moral standing. Human beings have moral standing
because they possess an intellect (or soul) that makes them capable of thinking and
choosing.
For Descartes, animals and plants does not have any moral standing since they are
non-humans and they are only capable of mechanistic behavior which does not
involve conscious and thoughtful activity. In this regard, animals do not have any
moral standing.
Kant, also excluded nonhuman animals from moral consideration. They are not to
be considered to be moral beings since they are not capable of free and rational
Plant Trees
action.
SENTIENTISM
Sentientism grounds moral status not on an
individual’s rationality, but on the individual’s
sentience. Animals, like humans, can experience
both pleasure and pain, and that is a morally
important fact.
Singer has argued that our exclusion of animals
from moral considerability is equal to the
discrimination that has been perpetuated before,
and even today in some societies against black
and women.
 Means life-centered ethics, and thus refers to the theory that
view all life as possessing intrinsic value whether it is a human,
an animal, or a plant. BIOCENTRISM
The theory simply broadens the base class of morally
considerable beings, but not as wide relative to the millions of
plant and invertebrate forms of life making up earth’s denizens,
remain mere means to be managed for the good of the morally
privileged class of sentient beings.
For biocentrists, all organisms deserve to be considered as
having moral worth.
 ECOCENTRISM
A view that recognizes intrinsic value in all life forms and
ecosystems themselves. In a sense, it finds inherent value in
all of nature.

Ecocentrism goes beyond scientism on account of explicitly

including flora and the ecological contexts for organism. It
also goes beyond biocentrism by including environmental
systems as wholes, and their abiotic attributes based on the
theory that they are evolutionary source of all life.
 SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES

Deals with questions concerning whose

needs ought to matter in our management
and utilization of the natural resources,
what sacrifices should those living at
present make for the sake of satisfying the
needs of future generations.

Plant Trees
 RIGHT OF FUTURE
GENERATIONS
We confine our ethical considerations to our interactions
with people we have contact with such as our family
members, relatives, fellow students, co-workers or
neighbors. They are what we regard as members of our
moral community. We may also extend the coverage of our
moral community to people who maybe strangers to us but
living in this present time.
This section will address the question: “Do future
generations have moral standing?”, Do we have moral
obligations to people who are yet to exist?
Plant Trees
 POPULATION AND
CONSUMPTION
Exponential growth of the human population if the
human population results in the rapid depletion of
these resources leading to environmental problems
such as decreasing biodiversity, land, and soil
degradation, deforestation, and destruction of
natural habitats. It also brings about other major
environmental concerns such as increased
production of wastes, air and water pollution and
global warming. Plant Trees
 NONHUMAN INTEREST ISSUES

In this next category of issues, we will focus on the

questions of what kind of beings have moral value, how
should we treat those living things that are nonhuman,
what is our moral obligations towards them, and how do
we resolve conflicts that arise between human interests
and those of other living things.
 ANIMAL RIGHTS

Do animals, like humans, deserve moral consideration?

Do they have moral rights?

For advocates of animal welfare, being sentient should

be the test for having moral status, and not only being
rational. Our moral standards should protect and
enhance the interests of sentient beings, especially to
protect them from suffering.
 LEGAL RIGHTS OF NATURAL
OBJECTS

Rapid forest loss has eliminated habitat for unique

and threatened plant and animal species. At the
rate the forests are getting destroyed, many
species may no longer be around when we need
them. The same is happening in almost all the
forests around the world.
 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUES
These issues will focus on the problem of inequitable distribution of environmental benefits and
burdens and on how to ensure that no sectors in our society are disproportionately.

POLLUTION AND TOXIC WASTES

Environmental Justice required that we respect and promote the
right of everyone to live in a clean and safe environment free from
industrial waste pollution that can be detrimental to their well-
being. To pursue and promote environmental justice, thus, we need
to ensure that all people should be given by the government equal
protection from environmental hazards. The problem however, is
that in various situations, the interests of the poor and the minority
are not being protected as environmental hazards are not equitably
distributed among groups and societies.
 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUES

ECOFEMINISM
Is the position that argues that there are important
connections--- historical, experiential, symbolic, theoretical---
between the domination of women and domination of the
natural world.
Ecofeminists envision to overcome certain dualisms, or what
they call as binary opposites that justify power—dominants over
subordinates, masters over servants, predators over prey, men
over women, culture over nature, white over black, developed
nations over developing nations, civilized over primitive humans
over animals.
 CONCLUSION​
Environmental Ethics is not just a branch of Applied
Philosophy but holds a moral ground to our earth both
drawing out concerns or issues that lies on the
Anthropocentric side and Non-anthropocentric side.
Environmental ethics also reminds us on how to make a
change to our natural world because we are depending on
the natural resources itself without being aware of taking it
more than we bargain for and it could result of scarcity or
worse a total extinction of our natural resources and natural
environments.​
THANK YOU