Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability

ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY Chapter 28 BIOSPHERE 2 Biosphere 2, was designed to be self sustaining life-supporting system for eight lot sealed in the facility in 1991. The experiment failed because of a breakdown in its nutrient cycling systems. ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS AND VALUES Environmental Worldviews include How you compute the world works. What you believe your environsal role in the world should be. What you believe is right and wrong environmental behavior. INSTRUMENTAL AND INTRINSIC VALUES Instrumental (utilitarian) A value something has because of its usefulness to us or to the biosphere i. e. preserving natural capital and biodiversity Intrinsic (inherent) The value something has just because it exists regardless of whether it has any instrumental value to us. CLASSIFYING WORLDVIEWS Worldviews are slackly divided into two groups Holistic (Ecocentric) is domain centered and focuses on sustaining the earths Natural systems (ecosystem s) Life- airs (biodiversity) Life-support systems (biosphere) For all species Atomistic is individual centered anthropocentric (human-centered) Biocentric (life-centered) ANTHROPOCENTRIC, BIOCENTRIC, AND ECOCENTRIC Anthropocentric (human-centered) No-problem school (all problems solved), free-market school (global economy), responsible school (mix of previous 2) Instrumental value play a larger role. Biocentric (life-centered) Human as one with the earth Aldo Leopold and John Muir Intrinsic value play a larger role Ecocentric (earth-centered) Humans destroy the earth Emerson, Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Rachel Carson Environmental Worldviews and Values Intrinsic values play a larger role ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS Planetary curbment Anthropocentric We are the most important We are apart from the rest of nature Because of our technology we will never run out of resources Economic result is unlimited and we should use earths resources for our benefit Stew ardship Biocentric Be stewards to earth Manage earths life support system We most likely will not run out of resources but they should not be spiritless Environmental Wisdom Ecosystem-centered (Biocentric) We are dependent on nature Dont waste resources Success depends on how well we learn how nature sustains itself Ecofeminist Worldview important cause of environmental problems not just human-centeredness, but male-centeredness Advocate society fixing rift between humans and nature as well as ending oppression base on sex, race, class, and cultural/religious beliefs Social Ecology Worldview Creating better democratic communities raw forms of environmentally stable production New types of environmentally friendly technology CULTURAL GROUPINGS There are 3 different cultural grouping which determine a persons values and worldviews Moderns (about 45% of the adult U. S. population) actively seek materialism and the drive to acquire money and property, take cynical v iew of idealism and caring, accept some form of the planetary management worldview, and tend to be pro big businesses Traditionals (about 19% of the adult U. S. population) believe in family, church, and community, helping others, having caring relationships, and working to create a better society. They tend to be older, poorer, and less educated Cultural Creatives of New Progressives (about 36% of the adult U. S. population) have a strong commitment of family, community, the environment, education, equality, personal growth, sacred development, helping other people, living in harmony with the earth, and making a contribution to society.SHIFTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES AND WORLDVIEWS Global and national polls make known a shift towards the stewardship and environmental wisdom. LIVING MORE SUSTAINABLY Four guiding principles for living more sustainably Respect earth and life and all its diversity safekeeping for life with understanding, love, and compassion Build societies t hat are free, just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful Secure earths bounty and beauty for present and future generations HOW TO LIVE MORE precisely Some affluent people in developed countries are adopting a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity Voluntary simplicity is doing and enjoying more with less by learning to live more simply Based on Mahatma Gandhis principle of enoughness The earth provides enough to satisfy every persons lack but not every persons greedWhen we take more than we need, we are simply taking from each other, borrowing from the future, or destroying the environment and other species. When you choose voluntary simplicity it means Spending less time working for money Leading lives less driven to accumulate replete Spending more time living You basically must ask yourself How much is enough? Voluntary simplicity shouldnt be confused with constrained simplicity of the poor, who dont have enough to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, clean water, air, and good health. Law of Progressive Simplification True growth occurs as civilizations transfer an increasing proportion of energy and attention from the material side of life to the nonmaterial side and thereby develop their culture, capacity for compassion, sense of community, and strength of democracy. LIVING MORE SUSTAINABLY In order to make the planet a better place we must realize that individuals matter. Most of the environmental move on we have made during the last few decades occurred because individuals banded together to insist that we can do better. We must implement earth education. We need hope, a electropositive vision of the future, and commitment to making the world a better place to live. pic