Environmental Ethics: Issues

Question 1

Waste Management: Issue

Answer 1

Current waste systems are unsustainable — most waste goes to landfill, causing environmental harm.

Question 2

Waste Management: Case Study

Answer 2

China’s ‘National Sword’ policy (2018): banned foreign waste imports, forcing Western nations to reform recycling systems.

Question 3

Waste Management: Utilitarian View

Answer 3

Landfilling waste is not good for future generations — fails to maximise long-term happiness.

Question 4

Waste Management: Kantian View

Answer 4

Duty not to treat the environment merely as a means to an end — moral obligation to manage waste responsibly.

Question 5

Waste Management: Religious View

Answer 5

Genesis teaches humans are caretakers (stewards) of the Earth — responsible for sustainable use of creation.

Question 7

Animal Welfare: Issue

Answer 7

Animal cruelty, factory farming, habitat loss, and extinction highlight ethical issues in human–animal relationships.

Question 8

Animal Welfare: Bentham Quote

Answer 8

‘The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?’ — Bentham emphasises capacity for suffering.

Question 9

Animal Welfare: Case Study

Answer 9

Animal Welfare Act (2007) — extended moral worth and legal protection to animals beyond pets.

Question 10

Animal Welfare: Kantian View

Answer 10

Kant saw animals as means to human ends — duties to animals are indirect duties to humanity.

Question 11

Animal Welfare: Singer’s View

Answer 11

Singer’s concept of speciesism — discrimination against non-human animals; argues for equal moral consideration.

Question 12

Sustainability: Issue

Answer 12

Ensuring resources meet current needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs.

Question 13

Sustainability: Key Methods

Answer 13

Renewable energy, eco-tourism, and recycling — central strategies for sustainable development.

Question 14

Sustainability: Case Study

Answer 14

Costa Rica — reforestation, renewable energy, and eco-tourism make it a model of ethical and political environmental commitment.

Question 15

Sustainability: Natural Law View

Answer 15

Preserving the environment fulfils the primary precept to preserve human life.

Question 16

Sustainability: Deep Ecology View

Answer 16

Rejects human-centred ethics — values nature intrinsically, not just for human benefit.

Question 17

Climate Change: Issue

Answer 17

Global rise in temperatures and sea levels caused by greenhouse gases — leading to ecosystem collapse.

Question 18

Climate Change: Case Study

Answer 18

Paris Agreement (2015): aimed for global cooperation and moral responsibility, though the US temporarily withdrew.

Question 19

Climate Change: Kantian View

Answer 19

Pollution and climate inaction fail the universalisation test — cannot be willed as universal law.

Question 20

Climate Change: Situation Ethics View

Answer 20

Conservation is the most loving action — preserves life for present and future generations.

Question 21

Climate Change: Pope Francis (Laudato Si’)

Answer 21

Calls for ‘ecological conversion’ — recognising the interconnectedness of all creation and moral duty to care for the planet.

Question 22

Stewardship definition

Answer 22

• ethical responsibility as humans to be caring and responsible mangers of the earth
• Religious ideas that god gave us the earth and we need to look after is

Question 23

Convervation Definition

Answer 23

• Conservation: care and protection of the planets for future gens
• Conservation success:
  
  • Humpback whales gone from 450 to 250,000
  • China banned commercial rhino horns

Question 24

Differnce between conservation and stewarship

Answer 24

Conservation is the care of the planets reasuces for future generation and stewardship is the ethical responsibility to care for the whole planet.

Question 25

Christian Approach: Dominion

Answer 25

- Anthropocentric - Comes from Genesis - Humans were instated by God to rule over the earth and use its resourced for their own purpose

Question 26

Christian Approach:

Answer 26

- Anthropocentric with a lean towards Biocentrism - Interpreted differently between different Christians - Christians consider Jesus’s teaching to love thy neighbour as providing a clear reason to act on environmental issues - Pope Francis has also spoken out about climate change.

Question 27

Christian Approach: bio-centric scholars / eg

Answer 27

- Barnet: Man sin also hurts nature bc we’re so intrinsically realted to it - Chrysostom: we must respect nature because we come from the same origin. - Francis of Assis

Question 28

Christian Approach: Theo-centrism

Answer 28

- God is underlying reason for moral behaviour - **Crook**: obligations to non humans are due to relationship with god- god made them - Stewardship: human are responsible to god, magangers of earth - **Pope John Paul** man should be co-operator with god and not put himself in place of god

Question 29

Christian Approach: issues with a christian view

Answer 29

**Lin Whit Jr:** - Creation story leads to a anthropocentric idea that Christianity has encouraged a duality betweeen man and nature- permitting teh exploitation of nature - Christianity is to blame for the exploitation of nature -------------------------------------------------------------------- Francis Bacon (C16): We can use the creation story and Genesis 1 to exploit nature

Question 30

Secular Approach: Shallow ecology

Answer 30

- Anthropocentric - Superficial → doesn’t think very deeply of what the environment needs - Instrumentalist → we need to use it so we should look after it - Economic → if we run out of oil → hurts economy - Aesthetics based → we like so we should keep as it looks nice - Future generations: I will preserve the woodland bc I want my children to be able to enjoy it

Question 31

Secular Approach: shallow ecology benefits

Answer 31

- Short term: people can connect here and **now** → immediate benefits - People can relate bc it’s about them - Future gen: Tap into a group of people → parents - Still protect the environment - Appeals to self interest

Question 32

Secular Approach: shallow ecology issues

Answer 32

- superficial: beautiful without beauty would it b valuable - Selfish - Drive to help many aspects of the enviromental problems do not relate to us lost - Economy: making profit form enviroment → loose sight of what the enviroment is → dangerous - Environment looses its intrtinsic value → less able to protect it → easy to abuse

Question 33

Secular Approach: Deep Ecology WHO

Answer 33

Aldo Leopold

Question 34

Secular Approach: Aldo Leopold

Answer 34

- Regarded as the most influential book every written on conservation - “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the intergity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends not to”

Question 35

Secular Approach: Aldo Leopold's ideas developed by

Answer 35

- Arne Naess - George Sessions

Question 36

Secular Approach: Singer's Dam

Answer 36

- Dam being built and if built it will flood a valley killing animals and wildlife - Anthropometric view: dont flood → future gens of humans then cannot have the wildlife lost - Sentient beings view: all the non human animals would die = bad - Preservation for life: all elements of living nature would die

Question 37

Secular Approach: Albert Schweitzer

Answer 37

Reverence for Life - holding a intrinsic value an reverence for the natural world

Question 38

Secular Approach: deep ecology evaluation

Answer 38

Singer: senteinet beings are more important

Question 39

Secular Approach: Lovelock what

Answer 39

Gaia Hypothesis

Question 40

Secular Approach: Gaia Hypothesis main ideas

Answer 40

- atmosphere and biosphere are an interconnected organism = gaia - Gaia is cybercentic and regulates earth's habilitability - Gaia is vulnerable

Question 41

Secular Approach: Strengths of Gaia Hypothesis

Answer 41

- Challenges anthropocentric understandings of the earth because it suggests humans are not the most important but just one species of a living whole - Opposed to Darwinism and evolution because it creates a role for Gaia in the development of organisms - Sees the environment as valuable in itself - Shows humans are dependent on the world, not the world dependent on us

Question 42

Secular Approach: issues with Gaia Hypothesis

Answer 42

- Lovelock was more pessimistic about the ability of the planet to respond to climate change and self-regulate in the face of the damage being done to it by humans - Singer critiques: argues it’s wrong to attribute the idea of intrinsic value to a non-sentient being and meaningless to talk about such things having desires or consciousness

Question 43

Secular Approach: Singer's Utilitarianism

Answer 43

- all sentient beings (beings capable of feeling) have an interest in avoiding pain. - Humans do not respect this and have no ethical justification for doing so. - Advocates a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. - Although does concede it is only the inflicting of pain that is wrong, not the killing itself. - Thus it is the way we raise, treat and kill meat that is morally wrong.

Question 44

Secular Approach: Paul Taylor

Answer 44

- argued for the moral significance of non-sentient beings, since every living thing is ‘pursuing its own good in its own unique way’. - This is the same as how we see ourselves and therefore we should place ‘the same value on their existence as we do on our own’.