Environmental Ethics: Past Present, and Future

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Environmental Ethics: Past Present, and Future Environmental Ethics: Past, Present, and Future Environmental ethics began its roots when ethicists began to question the philosophy of anthropocentric (human centeredness) perspectives. Environmental ethicists are attempting to establish what is morally correct between the environment and humans. As we near a future where natural resources are becoming more in demand, we must try to find a medium ground between the needs of humans and the sustainability of our natural environment. Without some form of ethics and moral judgment, our environment could be facing a devastation from which there is no return. Aristotle once wrote that “nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man’ (Politics, BK. 1, chap 8). This statement alone shows us the anthropocentric ideas humans have had since the earliest writings. Humans believed that it is fine to consume natural resources, including animals, for the benefit of human kind without regards to the consequences that could happen to our environment. As we examine the current situation with our needs for more fuel, we are looking for ways to fill this need by going into untouched environments, leaving ourselves open for possible environmental disasters (Lieberman, 2005). Some of the disasters could happen through natural forces such as earthquakes and storms, but other disasters could (and do) happen by human error. Humans search for more fuel is not the only environmental disasters that we face. There have been extinctions of certain animal species due to over hunting, erosions of complete mountaintops from strip mining, lands destroyed from slash-and-burn farming techniques used by farmers, and of course, global warming. Environmental ethicists began formulating questions about the destruction of our natural surroundings (Brennan, 2008). Moral issues arose
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