Essay on "Environmental Ethics There Are Few Issues Today"

Essay 3 pages (1002 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Environmental Ethics

There are few issues today more widely discussed and more controversial than the environment. The specter of global warming has taken the spotlight from other environmental issues, but these issues as a whole have been slowly gaining prominence since they were first raised several centuries ago. The duty, if any, that human beings bear to their environment -- that is, to this planet and the multitude of ecosystems on it that our actions directly and indirectly affect -- has been a major topic for debate, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. There are many different viewpoints on the subject, each backed by often incredibly passionate proponents. Many people at this point in time, if not most, agree that we as a species do have a huge effect on our environment and that we must take some responsibility to preserve nature. The preservation of untamed wilderness, especially, is a hot-button issue. There are a variety of opinions on whether this should be a priority, and on why, an almost all of these opinions come down to some form of human selfishness.

This might seem unfair, but in reality most human acts are done for the betterment of the individual or the species, and sometimes both. Acting in any other way would be nonsensical -- though some profess this belief, few individuals act in a way that suggests they would provide nature with a benefit to their own sever detriment (i.e., not many have died to save a tree). Still, there are some good selfish reasons for developing a system of environmental ethics. One such good selfish reason for preserving nature is the cathedral argument. Many cultures and individuals have found something sacred and/or holy about nature. Nature in its rawest forms can allow one -- or seem to allow one -- some glimpse of the act of creation, which is a profound religious experience. Others claim to feel a sense of rebirth, or of a return to some ultra-moral or even amoral state. In short, the cathedral argument maintains that nature provides a sort of religious sanctuary that cannot be duplicated, and as such it should remain as unsullied as any church or other religious edifice. Though the utility of nature in this view is entirely ethereal and in no way scientifically verifiable, it is this very unverifiable nature of nature that proponents of the cathedral argument wish to protect.

An almost entirely opposite argument for the preservation of wilderness is called the laboratory argument. As its name implies, this view sees nature as a laboratory, capable of giving humans insight into many branches of knowledge, including biology, medicine, genetics, and more. It is by definition impossible to reproduce any natural environment; there is now ay to create the raw and unplanned synchronicity that nature appears to have. Thus, each unique patch of nature that is destroyed is irrevocably lost, and any future knowledge or insights yet to be obtained along with it.… READ MORE

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