Environmental problems

The world has continued to face major challenges when it comes to environmental issues.  There are two major environmental problems. The first one is habitat loss whereby human beings are over exploiting the resources and endangering other species.  The second one is greenhouse emissions which have lead to increased global warming in the world. Despite the hard realities presented by these environmental challenges, possibilities of coming up with mitigation strategies to prevent the deteriorating environmental conditions are available.  Hence, environmental ethics is important in addressing environmental challenges.

            Environmental problems do not surface on their own. There are some major indirect drivers that contribute greatly to this problem among them being overpopulation.  As the human population continues to increase, resources become scarce (Bonn, 2009).  People end up destroying the environment as a way of meeting their needs. This includes clearing of forests and use of new technologies that lead to the destruction of a healthy environment. The second indirect driver to the destruction of the environment is poor education.  Many people are ignorant of effects that come from their activities. As a result, they engage in activities that threaten the environment. Among them are the effects of clearing forests on desertification. These are critical drivers that when addressed, the environment will be safeguarded. At the same time, these drivers do not function in a vacuum (Kernohan, 2012).  There are moral values, beliefs, and attitudes of the indirect drivers. Usually, people see it as ok to exploit everything in the environments for survival.  For example, people cut honeysuckle because they want to save the dogwood aimed at providing better-growing conditions for the plant.   Here, the action does not benefit dogwood trees since they grow better in partial shade and full light only when the growing conditions are ideal. Also, people behave in an environmentally destructive way because they want to save particular things. Hence, while saving while, they destroy the ecosystem.

            Personally, my environmental is a combination of ecocentric and biocentric aspect.  Just as, “Biocentric Egalitarianism” (Taylor, 5), I pursue this perspective from the fact that our ecosystem and the organisms in it are key elements in the environment. The entities that have moral standing or moral considerably are human beings and animals.   The two make an important part of the environment. There is a hierarchy of entities for moral standing. According to People or Penguins? (Baxter 7), humans have the upper hand.

Human beings are at a higher position regarding moral considerably. They have a high moral responsibility to care for the environment. The power of a person in the community gets demonstrated by Talmudic story, in which he withstood serious challenges and achieved massive power in the Jewish community around the globe. Humans must bear the responsibility to ensure the environment is safe.

            Just like in “The Land Ethic” (Leopold 13), the normative rule for my environmental ethics include; no over exploiting of nature, environmental conservation and bearing the responsibility to take care of the environment.  Avoiding over-exploiting nature ensures that non humans are given conducive environment. This eliminates human and non-human conflicts.  The consideration which people must take priority when their actions have a likelihood of causing harm is to avoid the action or ensure restoration of the normal. These rules and regulation are vital in ensuring that the environment is preserved.   They also make people responsible for their actions that affect the environment.

            The above environmental ethic is important in helping address the indirect driver(s) of environmental problems in some ways. Avoiding over exploiting the environment is a form of awareness that can sensitize people to take care of the environment (DesJardins, 2012).  Similarly, controlled exploitation of nature ensures the preservation of the environment while making use of nature while preservation helps the population to take care of nature. All these are important aspects that teach the population on the importance of a good environment.

            Things can be better if all people follow my environmental ethics. One is that they will use nature in a conservative way, they will replace what they have broken and lastly they will conserve what is there.  These rule and regulations are vital in ensuring that the environment is protected from multiple dimensions.

            Despite the realities in my environmental ethics, some people can object them by saying that nature must be exploited at all cost for better part of human life.   They can say that we cannot keep land for animals when people are congested. Others may say that we can’t lack fuel when the forest is there.

            From my view, such people are ignorant that our environment is what determines tomorrow. The reason is that spoiling the environment means that there will be no life. Water catchment will be tempered with leading to increased desert condition. Global warming will also increase making life hard. Hence, we cannot risk our environment while knowing that tomorrow we will need it. Therefore, we can exploit nature but in a controlled way. We can also conserve what is important for the other generation and also bear the responsibility of repairing the harm we cause to the environment.  All these will ensure balanced ecosystem.

             To conclude, our environment forms an important part of our survival. At the same time, habitat loss and greenhouse emissions remain as the major threats to a healthy environment. As a result, there is a need for a stakeholder to devise rules and obligations to deal with the problem. Among them is addressing population as well as the lack of capacity building on environmental issues.  Despite the fact that there are challenges in addressing environmental problems, proper environmental ethics such as proper exploitation of nature, conservation and bearing the responsibility for destruction can help us keep our environment protected.

References

Bonn, A. (2009): Drivers of environmental change in uplands. London: Routledge.

DesJardins, J. R. (2012): Environmental ethics. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth.

Kernohan, A. (2012). Environmental Ethics: An interactive introduction.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in nursing paper writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for medical essay writing service online.