Page 155 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

People of different cultures or worldviews may differ in the environment’s intrinsic value, which he maintained was
their values and thus may disagree about actions they consider infinite and priceless. “Nature conservation must be framed
to be right or wrong. Because of these differences, some ethi- as a moral issue,” McCauley wrote. “We will make more pro-
cists are relativists, believing that ethics do and should vary with gress in the long run by appealing to people’s hearts rather
social context. However, different societies show a remarkable than to their wallets.”
extent of agreement on what moral standards are appropriate.
For this reason, many ethicists are universalists, maintaining
that there exist objective notions of right and wrong that hold Environmental ethics pertains to people
across cultures and contexts. For both relativists and universal- and the environment
ists, ethics is a prescriptive pursuit; rather than simply describ-
ing behavior, it prescribes how we ought to behave. The application of ethical standards to relationships between
people and nonhuman entities is known as environmental
ethics. This branch of ethics arose once people began to per-
Ethical standards help us judge right ceive environmental change brought by industrialization. Our
from wrong interactions with our environment can give rise to ethical ques-
tions that are difficult to resolve. Consider some examples:
Ethical standards are the criteria that help differentiate right
from wrong. We all employ ethical standards as tools for mak- 1. Is the present generation obligated to conserve resourc-
ing countless decisions in our everyday lives. One classic ethi- es for future generations? If so, how much should we
cal standard is the categorical imperative proposed by German conserve?
philosopher Immanuel Kant, which advises us to treat others 2. Can we justify exposing some communities to a dispro-
as we would prefer to be treated ourselves. In Christianity this portionate share of pollution? If not, what actions are
standard is called the “Golden Rule,” and most of the world’s warranted to prevent this?
religions teach this same lesson. Another ethical standard is 3. Are humans justified in driving species to extinction?
the principle of utility, elaborated by British philosophers If destroying a forest would drive extinct an insect spe-
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The utilitarian principle cies few people have heard of but would create jobs for
holds that something is right when it produces the greatest 10,000 people, would that action be ethically admissi-
practical benefits for the most people. ble? What if it were an owl species? What if only 100
jobs would be created? What if it were a species harmful
We value things in two ways to people, such as a mosquito, bacterium, or virus?

People ascribe value to things in two main ways. One way is to The first question is central to the notion of sustaina-
value something for the pragmatic benefits it brings us if we put bility (p. 32) and to the pursuit of sustainable development
it to use. This is termed instrumental value (or utilitarian value). (pp. 174–175), which lie at the heart of environmental sci-
The other way is to value something for its intrinsic worth, to ence. Sustainability means leaving our descendants a world
feel that something has a right to exist and is valuable for its own in which they can meet their needs at least as well as we have
sake. This notion is termed intrinsic value or inherent value. met ours. From an ethical perspective, sustainability means
A person may ascribe instrumental value to a forest treating future generations as we would prefer to be treated
because we can harvest timber from it, hunt game in it, and ourselves. The second question goes to the heart of environ-
drink clean water it has captured and filtered. A person may mental justice, which we will tackle shortly (pp. 158–159).
perceive intrinsic value in a forest because it provides homes The third set of questions involves intrinsic values (but also
for countless organisms that the person feels have an inher- instrumental values) and typifies questions that arise in
ent right to live alongside us on our shared planet. A forest, debates over endangered species management, habitat pro-
an animal, a lake, or a mountain can have both intrinsic and tection, and conservation biology (Chapter 11).
instrumental value. However, different people may emphasize
different types of value. We have expanded our ethical consideration
Paying money for ecosystem services is a utilitar-
ian approach that attempts to quantify instrumental values Answers to questions like those above depend partly on what
by assigning market prices to them. For people who tend ethical standard(s) a person adopts. They also depend on the
to view nature through the lens of intrinsic values, this breadth and inclusiveness of the person’s domain of ethical
approach makes them uneasy. Indeed, scientists who share concern. A person who ascribes intrinsic value to insects and
the goal of conserving natural amenities sometimes disagree feels responsibility for their welfare would answer the third
on the means of doing so. For instance, Stanford Univer- set of questions very differently from a person whose domain
sity biologist Gretchen Daily is a key proponent of assign- of ethical concern ends with human beings.
ing market values to ecosystem services, with the utilitarian Many traditional non-Western cultures have long
goal of engaging market forces to assist in their conservation. granted nonhuman entities intrinsic value and ethical stand-
Yet in 2006 a student in her department, Douglas McCauley, ing. Australian Aborigines view their landscape as sacred
authored a commentary in the scientific journal Nature that and alive. Many native cultures across the Americas feature
argued eloquently against such an approach. McCauley ethical systems that encompass both people and aspects of
154 warned that the “commodification of nature” distracted from their environment.

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