The belief that a person is a

steward of God’s creation seems to be

just a myth today. Because of human
activities, the environment is facing
destruction which, in turn, puts the
whole of humankind to its greatest
challenge to date – survival.
 Humans and their environment are
expected to coexist – the environment
gives a person his/her basic necessities in
life such as food, shelter, and all other
things needed in order for him/her to
survive; while the person, in return, must
take care of the environment and ensure
the future generations of the same
benefits. However, humans went beyond
their power to perform, and brought upon
environment problems such as global
warming, acidification, ecological
imbalance, and pollution.
At this point, the challenge for people
is to prevent their own kind from facing
extinction. Everyday, there are
environmental warriors pressing their
advocacy to save the environment.
Everyday, they give humanity a glimmer
of hope that the world would soon rise
back to its former glory and beauty. It is
hoped that people will realize that if they
are the cause of the problem, they too can
provide the solution.
What is Environmental Ethics?
Environmental Ethics, also known as
environmental philosophy, deals with the
ethical relationship between a person and
his/her environment. This discipline also
takes into consideration the ethical
responsibilities of a person in as far as
his/her natural environment is concerned.
This philosophical discipline was
developed out of the growing awareness
of the effects on the environment of the
factors such as technology, industry,
population, and even economic expansion.
The primary task of environmental
ethics is the outlining or defining of one’s
moral obligations in the face of the
worsening environmental concerns. In
addressing such issues, environmental
philosophy must take into consideration
these two fundamental questions: What
duties and responsibilities does a person
have to the environment? Why must
he/she fulfil such duties and obligations?
To answer these fundamental
questions, one must first realize the
evolutionist perspective that every person
is a creation of the environment and not
the other way around. One owes
everything to the environment and he/she
is duty-bound to take care of it.
Today, environmentalists are doing
their best to address the issue on
environmental degradation. They even
make use of social media as a platform for
their campaigns and advocacies in saving
the environment. The common people, on
the other hand, help to propagate
environmental awareness through
cooperative and individual efforts.
Environmental Value Systems
An environmental value system
refers to how a person sees and values
environmental concerns. It can be
classified into three major categories:
ecocentrism, anthropocentrism, and
technocentrism.
Ecocentrism
This holistic world view is based on
the principle that the natural world has
inherent value. Advocates of this view
wish to lessen the impact of human
influence to the environment by reducing
and lessening the consumption of natural
resources. This particular value system is
divided into two types: the land ethic and
deep ecology.
The advocates of land ethic focus on
human responsibility towards the natural
world. They are said to be nature-centered
and are putting so much premium on the
rights of nature as compared to the rights
of humanity. Land ethic was first
advocated by Aldo Leopold in the late
1940s and implied the responsibility of
human beings for natural communities.
Deep ecology, on the other hand, is a
newer concept in ecocentric philosophy.
This value system intensively inquires
about a person’s set of values and lifestyles
that cause serious environmental
problems.
Anthropocentism
Anthropocentrism is a philosophical
perspective which puts human needs and
interests to be of highest value and
importance.
This viewpoint is human-centered and
believes that the natural world exists for
him/her alone; hence, concern for
nonhuman entities is limited to those
having value to people.
There are anthropocentric
philosophers who advocate the
cornucopian point of view, which claims
that environmental resources are
unlimited and the rapid increase in human
population does not lead to scarcity in
natural resources. Cornucopian
philosophers argue that the possibility of
resource scarcity and population
explosion is a mere exaggeration. They
believe that future technology will be
invented and developed to address such
issues.
Technocentrism
With values centered on technology,
this type of view believes that it can
provide solutions to all environmental
problems. Similar to anthropocentrism, it
is a world view which conceives that the
nature is present to benefits human
beings.
Technocentrism stresses that
environmental problems can be solved
through science and technology, and
holds that technology is a key ingredient
in improving the standard of living.
Advocates of this view downplay the
effects of environmental problems, such
as global warming and illegal logging.
They contend that scientific and
technological expertise are the answers to
the growing problems in the
environment.
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