limitless internal ethical resources.â HOLMES ROLSTON, III (2003) stated that Environmental ethics starts with human concerns for a quality environment, and ...
Global Environmental Ethics-Emerging issues and Remedy Dr K N Shetli1, Ms. Neha Mehta2 'Director, Faculty of Management & Faculty o f Engineering, Shree Saraswati Education Sanstha (SSES), Rajpur, Ta. Kadi, Dist Mehsana Dean - Interdisciplinary Research - GTU Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management, SSI S. Rajpur
ABSTRACT Global business must meet the requirement of environmental ethics. Environmental issues have posed global challenges for sustainability of nature to nurture human civilization. Today, the environmental crises that have emerged as a global challenge demands mitigation. An attempt is made to highlight the principles of global environmental ethics suggesting the remedial measures to overcome the environmental problems through morality applied in green accounting and green technology. It is essential to recognize the normative nature of environmental problems as environmental ethics in particular do have a critical role to play in environmental thought and action. Key Words: Environmental protection, Sustainable development, Eco-friendly products. Ecology, Ecosystem.
INTRODUCTION - ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Ethics is defined as a set of rules and principles that are followed by the society. Ethics basically is prescriptive behavior code. It outlines moral duties and obligation (Murthy, 2010). Ethics are a broad way of thinking about what constitutes a good life and how to live one. They address questions of right and wrong, making good decisions, and the character or attributes necessary to live a good life. Applied ethics address these issues with a special emphasis on how they can be lived out in a practical manner. In the most general sense, environmental ethics invites us to consider three key propositions: 1. the Earth and its creatures have moral status, in other words, are worthy of our ethical concern; 2. the Earth and its creatures have intrinsic value , meaning that they have moral value merely because they exist, not only because they meet human needs; drawing from the idea o f an eco system human beings should consider "wholes" that include other forms of life and the environment (Paul Wapner, 1997) Some of the questions addressed in environmental ethics include: •
Should there be limits on what we choose to do with nature?
•
Do w'e have a duty to protect nature? Could our duty ever require us to save a plant, animal, or habitat, even if that means that we must make some sacrifice?
•
What should we do to protect the environment so that we, and our descendants, can continue to enjoy and benefit from the natural world?
•
How should we harvest and make use of natural resources without exhausting those resources?
•
Do trees and animals have rights of their own?
•
Does the natural world have a value apart from its support of human life?
SCOPE OF ETHICS The scope of 1998) • • • • • • •
ethics is much broader than the realm of law .Ethics extends to (Andrew Light. all our duties and obligations, virtues and vices, as we interact with each other whether or not we should lie or steal, whether we should be charitable toward those less fortunate than ourselves, whether we should be forgiving, and how to resolve conflicts of interest when we have conflicting and Obligations to different persons.
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Environmental ethics is a branch of environmental philosophy that studies the ethical relationship between human-beings and the environment. Environmental ethics is concerned with moral issues in environmental protection. It deals with conservation of natural resources. Environmental ethics is considered as challenge to human-centeredness popularly called as, ‘anthropocentrism' which is embedded in the traditional ethical thinking The environmental ethics is interdisciplinary studies on moral relationship of human beings with environment and its non-human contents (Sheth, 2005). According to Tongjin Yang (2006), “Environmental ethics is a new sub-discipline of philosophy that deals with the ethical problems surrounding environmental protection. It aims to provide ethical justification and moral motivation for the cause of global environmental protection. Adjusting the relationship between humans and nature is one of the most fundamental issues we face and must deal with today. With the increasing deterioration of ecological systems on which human beings rely and the aggravation of the environmental crisis, human beings have realized that we cannot rely on economic and judicial methods alone to solve the problems of environmental pollution and ecological imbalances; we must also appeal to human beings’ limitless internal ethical resources.” HOLMES ROLSTON, III (2003) stated that Environmental ethics starts with human concerns for a quality environment, and some think this shapes the ethic from start to finish. Others hold hat. beyond inter-human concerns, values are at stake when humans relate to animals, plants.
species and ecosystems. According to their vision, humans ought to find nature sometimes morally considerable in itself, and this turns ethics in new directions
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Global environmental change gives rise to ethical challenges that need to be grasped within a framework of critical and forward-looking thinking. Environmental challenges often tend to he framed as costs to be borne and technologies to be discovered, leaving behind the opportunities and co-benefits associated with serious engagement Environmental concerns figure prominently in the work of the United Nations, and especially in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. One focus of UNESCO has to do with the ethical principles at stake in environmental sciences and policies. What is the moral value of the environment? What in nature is worth protecting, preserving or respecting? What do we mean by global sustainability? How much should we care for the interests of future generations? What are the implications of the principle of justice for policy decisions related to environmental issues? It is necessary to develop approach to determine how international policy can promote ethical reflection about the environment. Such reflection is essential to the extent that it can provide strong moral incentives to make environmental policy effective throughout the world. (Henk, 2010)
FEATURES OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS f irst, environmental ethics is extended Environmental ethics extends the scope of ethical concerns beyond one's community and nation to include not only all people everywhere, hut also animals and the whole of nature - the biosphere. Second, environmental ethics is interdisciplinary. There are many overlapping concerns and areas of consensus among environmental ethics, environmental politics, environmental economics, environmental sciences and environmental Engineering Third, environmental ethics is plural. From the moment it was born, environmental ethics has been an area in which different ideas and perspectives compete with each other. Anthropocentrism, animal liberation/rights theory, biocentrism and egocentrism all provide unique and. in some sense, reasonable Fourth, environmental ethics is global. Ecological crisis is a global issue. Environmental pollution does not respect national boundaries. No country can deal with this issue alone. To cope with the global environmental crisis, human beings must reach some value consensus and cooperate with each other at the personal, national, regional, multinational and global levels. Global environmental protection depends on global governance. An environmental ethic is, therefore, typically a global ethic with a global perspective. Fifth, environmental ethics is revolutionary. At the level of ideas, environmental ethics challenges the dominant and deep-rooted anthropocentrism of modern mainstream ethics and
extends the object of our duty to future generations and non-human beings. At the practical level, environmental ethics forcefully critiques the materialism, hedonism and consumerism accompanying modern capitalism, and calls instead for a ‘green lifestyle' that is harmonious with nature (Tongjin Yang, 2006).
SPECIAL NATURE OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS 1. Global environmental problems are caused by people in one part of the world but are most harshly experienced by others who are separated from those causing the problem by great space and time. In addition, those most vulnerable to global environmental problems are often least responsible for causing them. Climate change is a strong example of this feature of global environmental problems. Those most vulnerable to climate include many of the poorest people in the world who are among those least responsible for emitting the greenhouse gases that are causing the problem. 2. Because the actual harm that we are causing to others may be in a particular part of the world that is uniquely vulnerable to global environmental change but is unknown to us, we not only don’t know the people we are harming but have no idea where the locus of the worst harm is located 3. Their consequences are often catastrophic to those who are most harmed by them. Climate change, for instance, directly threatens human life and health and resources to sustain life as well as species of plants and animals and ecosystems around the world. The harms include deaths from disease, droughts, Hoods, heat and intense storms and damage to homes and villages from rising oceans and intense storms, adverse impacts on agriculture, social disputes caused by diminishing natural resources, sickness from a variety of diseases, the inability to rely upon traditional sources of food, the destruction of water supplies, and the inability to live where one has lived to sustain life. In addition, the very existence of some small island nations is threatened by climate change caused seal level rise. Clearly these impacts are catastrophic for some. (Donald 2009)
PRINCIPLES OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS (Sheth, 2009). The global environmental Ethics should follow few following principles: (1) All the components of environment both biotic and a biotic factors are interconnected and dependent on each other for survival. (2) Humans owe duty towards the protection of environment. There must be a balance between production and consumption. (3) The resources of the nature are limited and finite. The human activities must be sustainable. Sustainability is meeting the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It can be said that global environmental ethics is a part of the larger issues as regards ethical living. The way humans in the world maintain relationships, nurture it carefully, very similarly they must foster relationship with natural environment. Ethical relationship with environment will bring sustainability. The way love is commitment and caring in human relationship.
commitment and care taking is love towards the environment. No laws exist for making love heartily and similarly no environmental laws can be effective if the relationship with nature is not appreciated as “common resource”. The global environmental ethics is thus a purposeful activity beyond materialism and consumerism. The environmental ethics is same throughout the world and it says that people have natural born sentiments of morality, which can be whole heartedly extended towards environmental conservation and protection. (Sheth, 2009) REMEDIAL MEASURES The industries in maintaining sustainable development while using natural resources can be rational and ethical by showing special care such as: (i) (ii) (iii)
(iv)
Making products that are eco-friendly having least adverse impact on humans and ecosystem. Using industrial process that need less energy, least use of natural resources, reduce waste by recycling and reusing and prevent abate pollution. Adopting green accounting system that is including the environmental cost in goods and services. This is believed that consumer will be indirectly forced to reduce the damage to the environment, pollution and waste reduction. Such measures may facilitate the approach of polluter pay principle. There should be a balance between ecology and economy. Economic growth is not possible without environmental damage and resource depletion. It is , therefore, necessary to recognize the duty of the global business to preserve the ecosystems. The ecosystem is an interrelated and interdependent set of biotic and abiotic factors mutually adapted to the environment. The environmental ethics that business firms must support are larger ecological system as they depend upon natural environment for their energy, material resource and waste treatment and disposal. Unless business firms understand the interrelationship and interdependencies of ecosystems within which they operate may lead to serious pollution problems.
Environmental ethics for all multinational corporations as to whether they follow international “home laws” or “host laws” is based on the fact that environment should be protected not only for the same of human being but also for its own sake. Problems like global warming (COMEST, 2010), ozone depletion and disposal of hazardous waste that concern the entire world. They require international cooperation and must be tackles at global level. There are many multilateral agreements under the current system of international env ironmental governance. But many of them lack accountability and effectiveness in terms of sustainability. New models of governance need to be designed which are very clear to all the nations. Due to global change, there is a need to attain green economy, learning, management approaches and research efforts syllabus in education institutions must think in terms of Green. Managers must be further trained and respond to global environmental charge through green technology. (Keith Douglass Warner, 2009)
Thus environmental ethics can solve the environmental problems but we must recognize the essential normative nature of environmental problems. The normative discourse and the environmental ethics in particular do have a crucial role to play in environmental thought and action (Joel. 2010) REFERENCES 1. Paul Wapner, “Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics” School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996 2. C S V Murthy, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai, 2012 3. Eight, A., “Contemporary Environmental Ethics from Metaethics to Public Philosophy” Metaphilosophy, 33(4), 426-449 (2002). 4 Sheth K N, “Basic Issues in Environmental Ethics” Presentation made in ISTAR, 2005 5. Tongjin Yang, “Towards An Egalitarian Global Environmental Ethics” Environmental Ethics And International Policy-ISB N 978-92-3-104039-9 - © Unesco 2006 6. Holmes Rolston, III, “Environmental Ethics” Blackwell Publishing, 2003 7. Henk A. M. J. ten Have, Editors, Environmental Ethics and International Policy, second edition UNESCO Publishing, 2010 8. Environmental Ethics: Examining Your Connection to the Environment and Your Community.' Student Workbook, the Goldman Environmental Prize & The Video Project 2005 9. COMEST Report by the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology Composed and printed in the workshops of UNESCO © UNESCO 2010 10. Donald A Brown, “Two Climate Change Matters Move To Center Stage In Copenhagen With Profound Implications for Developed Nations: Ethics and Adaptation December 15, 2009 trackback URL: http,s://blous.psu.edu/mt4/mt-tb.eui/16 1525 11. Keith Douglass Warner OEM, with David DeCosse , “Thinking Ethically About the Environment” Santa Clara University, May 2009 12. Joel .1 Kasiola, “Can Environmental ethics solve environmental problems and save the world? College o f social and behavioral sciences, San Francisco State University, California USA, 2005
