Ethical Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethical Sustainability - Essay Example Applied ethics attempts to analyze and recommend morally correct strategies for addressing issues in a practical manner. Environmental ethics is a branch of applied ethics which is mostly concerned about the entire ecosystem and the relationship between humans and the natural environment. The concept gained traction in the west by works of Henry David Thoreau and John Muir, who raised concerns about the value of non human nature. However, Aldo Leopold’s essay The Land Ethic published in 1949 is generally considered as the key turning point in the field of environmental ethics. As an academic discipline, environmental ethics surfaced only after the early 1970s when the effects of industrial revolution on the natural environment were widely witnessed by ecological researchers. Environmental ethics includes anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric (bio-centric or eco-centric) schools of thought. The former is human-centered, considering only human species as of primary concern, wh ereas the later focuses on other aspects and components of nature as well (Kibert et al., 2012). The contemporary industrial consumer societies hold planetary worldview (anthropocentric) which asserts that as humans are the keystone species, they have the right to exploit natural resources to maximize their own benefit. Other species and natural components are valuable according to their usefulness to us. This world view is quite widely accepted due to the advancement in the human living standards after rapid industrial development since 1970s. The eco-centric worldview focuses on conservation of natural resources and ecosystems so that they are sustainable for humans as well as all forms of life. Major global challenges related to the environmental degradation such as biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystems, natural resource depletion due to population growth, pollution and global warming due to climate change are all considered essentially ethical problems under this w orldview. Eco-centric approaches emphasize that human race as a keystone species have ethical and moral obligations and responsibilities towards protecting the environment. This paper attempts to identify and examine an environmental ethical challenge such as global warming due to climate change and explore its consequences in the light of eco-centric school of thought. The paper will also suggest various strategies for resolving the issue. The Issue One of the most important global challenge posing threats to human race in the 21st century is global warming. Anthropogenic activities such as rapid deforestation, uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels and emissions from vehicles have led to a substantial increase in pre-existing levels of green house gases, particularly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. These gases are responsible for entrapment of solar radiation of specific wavelength to keep the earth warm, a phenomenon called green house effect. The tem perature can decline to as low as -18 Celsius in absence of these gases making the environmental conditions unfavorable for all life forms to even exist. However, the huge anthropogenic inputs in these gases since the industrial revolution have escalated green house effect causing rapid warming of the earth. Scientist have predicted that rise in temperatures overtime could result in rise of sea level reducing land cover, and trigger extreme climatic events such as floods, storms and droughts. In addition, a number of species are at the risk of extinction due to intolerable temperature extremes. Researchers studying past climates have revealed that humans have raised such levels of pollution in a single century, which are comparable to natural