Q : What is meant by ‘environmental ethics’? Why is it important to study? Discuss any one environmental issue from the viewpoint of environmental ethics.
Introduction
Environmental ethics is the branch of applied ethics that studies the moral relationship between human beings and the natural environment. It asks what ethical principles should guide our use, protection, and treatment of nature — recognizing that the environment has intrinsic value, not just instrumental value for human benefit.
Importance of Studying Environmental Ethics
- Moral Awareness: Encourages humans to view nature as a moral entity deserving respect and care.
- Sustainability: Guides policies and behavior toward long-term ecological balance.
- Intergenerational Justice: Promotes responsibility toward future generations.
- Holistic Development: Helps integrate economic growth with ecological preservation.
- Policy Formation: Informs environmental laws, conservation efforts, and climate action.
Environmental Issue: Deforestation
From an environmental ethics perspective, deforestation is not just a technical or economic problem—it is a moral failure.
- Anthropocentric View: Considers forests valuable mainly for human needs like timber, agriculture, and development.
- Ecocentric View: Argues that forests have inherent worth, as living ecosystems supporting countless species.
- Ethical Conflict: Human greed for resources versus duty to preserve ecological balance.
- Moral Resolution: Ethical forestry demands sustainable harvesting, reforestation, and community participation to ensure harmony between human welfare and nature’s integrity.
Conclusion
Environmental ethics teaches that humanity is not separate from nature but a part of it. Ethical reflection on our environmental actions is essential to ensure that progress does not come at the cost of planetary survival. Respect for nature is the foundation of sustainable and moral development.
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