Our

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Our Evolving Environmental Ethic
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Beauty vs. Use or
or Preservationist vs. Utilitarian
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Enter Aldo Leopold
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Acknowledgment of the findings of
Ecology connectedness
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from the Land Ethic
a land ethic cannot prevent the alteration,
management and use of these resources but it
does affirm their right to continued existence,
and at least in spots, their continued existence
in a natural state.
- Leopold
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Communitarianism Framework to describe the
evolution of ethical thought we have
duties and obligations to members of the
community
How is community defined?
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Relationship between humans Relationship with
higher animals Relationship with non-sentient
individual organisms Relationship to an entire
species Relationship to ecosystems
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Enter Holmes Rolston
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Relationship with higher animals

• Antivivisection
• Hunters track down and kill wounded animals
• Animal cruelty prosecutions, e.g. failure to
  feed
• animals adequately
• 2 whales caught in the ice in Alaska
• a bison who fell through the ice in Yellowstone
• pinkeye in the Yellowstone bighorn sheep
• omnivorous habits of humans

an ethic based on minimizing/preventing pain is
insufficient, What we ought to do depends on
what is and the is of nature differs from the is
of culture
-
Rolston
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Relationship with non-sentient individual
organisms

• Tunnel through a sequoia tree
• Please leave the flowers for others to enjoy
  vs. let the
• flowers live
• invasive exotics vs. poison ivy

What is almost invariably meant by a bad kind of
organism is an organism that is instrumentally
bad from the viewpoint of human interests, often
with further complication that human interests
have disrupted natural systems.
-
Rolston
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Relationship to an entire species individuals
vs. the entire species

• Feral goats on San Clemente Island
• Siberian tigers in zoos
• Yellowstone grizzly and her 3 cubs

The life the individual has is something passing
through the individual as much as something it
intrinsically possesses. The individual is
subordinate to the species.
-Rolston
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• Relationship to ecosystems
• Forest fires in Yellowstone, 1988
• Forest fires in Glacier NP, 2003
• Blowdown in Teton Wilderness
• Yellowstone elk aspen willows beaver
  wolves
• Back to the drowned bison
• Back to the trapped whales polar bears

The ecosystem provides the coordinates through
which each organism moves, outside which the
species cannot really be located.
- Rolston
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Ethics of Isolation Simply stated, in land-use
decisions and actions, it is unethical to
evaluate an area in isolation from its
surroundings or from its development over
time. - Forman
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Nature Endangered Species Act, 1973 Blacks Civil
Rights Act, 1957 Laborers Fair Standards Act,
1938 Native Americans Indian Citizenship Act,
1924 Women Nineteenth Amendment,
1920 Slaves Emancipation Proclamation,
1863 American Colonists Declaration of
Independence, 1776 English Barons Magna Carta,
1215 Natural Rights
The Evolution of Ethics from The Rights of
Nature by Roderick Nash
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Universe
Planet
Ecosystems
Rocks
Life
Future
Plants
Animals
Humans
Race
Present
Nation
Region
Ethical Past
Tribe
The Evolution of Ethics from The Rights of
Nature by Roderick Nash
Family
Self
Pre-ethical Past
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biocentrics
anthropocentrics
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Biocentric One who believes in a human economy
in which other species and their habitats are
preserved beyond the point necessary to avoid
ecological collapse, out of recognition that
other species have intrinsic value independent of
their instrumental value to human beings.
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Anthropocentric One who believes the world was
created for human use and that all decisions
about the world around us are appropriately made
relative to their impact on human welfare.
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biocentrics
anthropocentrics
90
lt10
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Ecosystem Services from Costanza et al, Science
1997
Ecosystem service Examples Gas
regulation CO2/O2 balance Climate
regulation greenhouse gas
regulation Disturbance regulation
storm protection/flood control Water regulation
provisioning of water for
ag/industry Water supply
provisioning of water by watersheds and
aquifers, drinking water Erosion
control/sediment retention prevention of
soil loss Soil formation weathering of
rock
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Ecosystem service Examples Nutrient
cycling N, P and other
cycles Waste treatment pollution
control/detoxification Pollination
pollinators for plant reproduction Biological
control predator/prey
equilibria Refugia habitat for plant
animal species Food Production
fish, game, crops Raw
materials
lumber, fuel, fodder Genetic resources
sources of medicines, food crops,
biodiversity Recreation ecotourism,
outdoor recreation Cultural aesthetic,
artistic, spiritual
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The most compelling reasons for environmental
conservation are not material enhancements or
altruism, or the acceptance of scientific
knowledge, but the personal conviction that
nature is as much a place for nurturing human
fulfillment as for raising crops or generating
harvestable commodities. - Leopold
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Only the human species contains moral agents,
but perhaps conscience on such an earth ought not
to be used to exempt every other form of life
from considerationwith the resulting paradox,
that the sole moral species acts only in its
collective self interest toward all the
rest. - Rolston
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biocentrics
anthropocentrics
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Translation of ethical beliefs into action
Individual behavior and choices Public
policy
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Goal mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon

- Garrett Hardin