Articles

A brief history of enviroethics and its challenges

Abstract

Environmental ethics has emerged during the early 1970s, when environmentalists started urging philosophers to consider the philosophical aspects of environmental problems. Environmental ethics considers the ethical relationships between humanity and non-human world. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group of over two thousands scientists, has concluded that climatic change is beyond dispute, and already changing our environment. Environmental instability portend ill for public health and well-being. This paper attempts to apply ethical theories to support environmental concerns and provides moral grounds to preserve the earth's environment. This article documents consensus among environmental philosophers as given by synthesis data provided via survey among articles, websites, and books by the keywords: environment, ethics, health and crises. The field has come to exert significant influence over a large number of human science disciplines in relation to environmental sustainability and human wellbeing. Environmental ethics focuses on the possibility of the identification of human ego with nature, means the larger ecological self deserves respect, too. Environmental ethics expands the boundaries of ethics to include the nature and considers its sustainability to ensure human wellbeing. This study emphasizes mainly on a brief history of environmental ethics and its protection against damage. Environmental changes and extreme weather events in plus to species distinction and a growth of diseases are impossible to hide and ought to be impossible to ignore. The health decline associated with various forms of these changes is continuing. It raises crucial issues about environmental justice.

Anonymous. Environmental ethics. a. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_ethics-97k (accessed on 2008) 2.Brennan A. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. a. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-environmental (accessed on 2008)

Aristotle. Politics. translated by Barker E. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1948.

Singer P. Environmental Values. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1991; 12-16.

Anonymous. Environmental Ethics and Sustainability. www.oneplanetinstitute.com/maenvethics.html (accessed on 2009)

Anonymous. Rachel Carson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson -138k (accessed on 2009)

Anonymous. Earth Day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day (accessed on 2009)

Carson R. Silent Spring. London: Hamish Hamilton; 1963.

Anonymous. Discover Magazine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discover_ (magazine) - 32k (accessed on 2009)

Callicott JB. Intrinsic Value in Nature: a meta ethical analysis. The Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy 1995; (3). 11.O'Neill J. The Varieties of Intrinsic Value. Monist 1992; 75: 119-37.

Jamieson D. Morality's Progress: Essays on Humans, Other Animals, and the Rest of Nature. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 2002.

Schönfeld M. Introduction to justifying value in nature. The Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy 1995; (3). 14.Callicott JB. Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Albany: SUNY Press; 1999.

Callicot JB, Ames RT. Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought. Albany: State University of New York Press; 1989. 16.Callicott JB. In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Albany: SUNY Press; 1989.

Næss A. Ecology Community, Lifestyle. Translated and editted by Rothenberg D. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1989.

Sapontzis SF. The Nature of the Value of Nature. The Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy 1995; (3).

Rolston H. Philosophy Gone Wild. New York: Prometheus Books; 1989.

Rolston H. Feeding people versus saving nature? in Aiken W, LaFollette H, eds. World Hunger and Morality. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall; 1996, pp. 248-67.

Anonymous. IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change (accessed on 2007)

Anonymous. The Science of Climate Change. http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=13619 (accessed on 2009)

Anonymous. Rising to the climate challenge. Nature 2007; 449 (7164): 755.

Anonymous. Global Warming: Background. www.eartheasy.com/article_global_warming_background.htm (accessed on 2009)

Henry S. Climate. editted by Jamieson D. Malden MA: Blackwell Press; 2001, pp. 11–20.

Thompson PB, Hannah W. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, Heidelberg :Springer Berlin Press; 2008; pp. 229-64.

Thompson PB. Land and water. Sci Eng Ethics 2000; 6 (2): 275-8.

Shrader-Frechette K. Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2002.

Chan NY, Ebi KL. Smith F, Wilson TF, Smith AE. An integrated assessment framework for climate change and infectious diseases. Environ Health Perspect 1999; 107 (5): 329-37.

Eckersley R. Environmentalism and Political Theory. London: UCL Press; 1992.

Norton B. Toward Unity among Environmentalists. New York: Oxford University Press; 1991.

Leopold A. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1949, pp. 224-5.

Nash R. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press; 1989. 34.Norton B. Ethics on the Ark: Zoos, Animal Welfare, and Wildlife Conservation. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press; 1995.

Anonymous. Global Warming 'biggest threat'. http:// news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3381425.stm (accessed on 2009) 36.Anonymous. Climate and Adaptation. www.worldwildlife.org/climate/whyitmatters.html(accessed on 2009)

Pielke Jr RA, Gratz J, Landsea CW, Collins D, Saunders M, Musulin R. Normalized hurricane damage in the United States: 1900–2005. Natural Hazards Rev 2008; 9 (1): 29–42.

Anonymous. The Tragic Consequences of Climate Change for the World's Children. www.unicef.org.uk/press/news_detail_full_story.asp?news_id=1120 (accessed on 2009)

Rousseau JJ, Butterworth CE. The Reveries of the Solitary Walker. translated by France P. USA: Penguin Classics Press; 1979.

Boseley S. Health Hazards.www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2005/jun/30/climatechange.climatechangeenvironment4 (accessed on 2009)

Shrader-Frechette K. Science Policy, Ethics and Economic Methodology. Dordrecht: D Reidel; 1984.

Gruen L, Jamieson D. Reflecting on Nature. New York: Oxford University Press; 1994.

Karliner J. The Corporate Planet. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books; 1997.

Diesendorf M, Hamilton C. Human Ecology, Human Economy. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin; 1997.

Schmidtz D, Willott E. Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, WhatReally Works. New York: Oxford University Press; 2002.

Files
IssueVol 2 (2009) QRcode
SectionArticles
Keywords
Ethics, Environment, Health, Crises.

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Laal M. A brief history of enviroethics and its challenges. J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2009;2.