Chapter 1: Introduction to Environmental Issues
1.4 Environmental Ethics and Worldviews
The ways in which humans interact with the earth and its resources are determined by ethical attitudes and behaviours that are embodied in each individual’s worldview. A worldview is a particular philosophy or conception of the world according to Oxford Languages.
Three main environmental worldviews are often identified in western-based teachings of environmental ethics. The table below identifies these worldviews and the core beliefs underpinning them:
| Planetary Management | Stewardship | Environmental Wisdom |
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Figure 1. shows the core beliefs of three different worldviews, adapted from Living in the Environment by Miller, Hackett and Wolfe.
These worldviews constitute a spectrum of ethics and behaviours that, moving from left to right, range from more self-centred/human-centred/anthropocentric ethics, out towards biosphere or earth-centred (biocentric) ethics.
Most industrialized societies experience population and economic growth that are based upon the planetary management worldview, assuming that infinite resources exist to support continued growth indefinitely. In fact, in these societies, economic growth is considered a measure of how well the society is doing. The late economist Julian Simon pointed out that life on earth has never been better, and that population growth means more creative minds to solve future problems and give us an even better standard of living. While this is true in many respects, now that the human population has passed seven billion and many key resources and ecosystems are being depleted, many are beginning to question the planetary management worldview. Such people are moving towards stewardship and/or environmental wisdom (sometimes called “earth-centred” or “deep ecology”) worldviews.
Sustainable Ethic
A sustainable ethic is an environmental ethic by which people treat the earth as if its resources are limited. This ethic underpins the stewardship and environmental wisdom worldviews, and assumes that the earth’s resources are not unlimited and that humans must use and conserve resources in a manner that allows their continued use in the future. A sustainable ethic also assumes that humans are a part of the natural environment and that we suffer when the health of a natural ecosystem is impaired. A sustainable ethic includes the following tenets:
- The earth has a limited supply of resources.
- Humans must conserve resources.
- Humans share the earth’s resources with other living things.
- Indefinite growth that relies on resource extraction is not sustainable.
- Humans are a part of nature.
- Humans are affected by natural laws.
- Humans succeed best when they maintain the integrity of natural processes and cooperate with nature.
For example, if a fuel shortage occurs, how can the problem be solved in a way that is consistent with a sustainable ethic? The solutions might include finding new ways to conserve oil or d