Environmental ethics is a broad subject that focuses on the study of natural world restoration and conservation. Professor McGowan explains three main approaches to environmental ethics in a video titled Environmental Ethics, respectively as anthropocentric, sentimentist and biocenteric. Compared to other approaches, the anthropocentric approach is particularly poor. In deciding what is to be done with the world, the anthropocentrical approach relies on human interests. The world will only be maintained by men if it is beneficial to them; the environment can also be ruined by them. The anthropocentric approach remains in violation of the principles of environmental conversation famously referred to as The Kyoto Protocol. Signatories agreed in unison to combat emission of greenhouse gases. The agreement remains one of the most significant steps ever made in environmental conservation. However, the anthropocentric approach has watered down the full adoption of The Kyoto Protocol. Nations have had to make tough decisions, for example, many industries that emit greenhouse gases to the environment are of vital importance to the host nation’s economy. A reduction of the scale of production or a complete closure, for an anthropogenic mind, is entirely out of the question. As long as this approach to environmental conservation will remain practiced, other strategies that genuinely support preservation and protection of the environment will stay shadowed.
There is a need for the adoption of a free market principle where businesses and individuals are rewarded by their compliance to actions that conserve the environment. Those who comply most gain trust and acceptance for their products in the market while operations and products of those who remain defiant are rejected by members of society. Personally, I would borrow K. D. Borcoman’s idea (from a video titled Environmental Ethics; Considerations for Earth Day) of embracing Earth Day as a learning platform. My approach will entail the use of the annual event to propel a campaign that discredits egregious anthropocentric ideas while embracing a biocentric approach in environmental conservation.
Works Cited
Borcoman (2017). Environmental Ethics; Considerations for Earth Day. .
Cochrane, Alasdair. “Environmental ethics.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2006).
McGowan, M. (n.d.). Environmental Ethics. Available at: https://youtu.be/GOjq7_kuX3w https://youtu.be/iGnYw-pTQZ4 [Accessed 10 Nov. 2017].
