From Ecocide to Ecoethics

2014

The article contains a reflection on the role of the idea of sustainable development in supporting the existence of human species. The problem is not easy and raises many questions. The contemporary social context does not favor sustainable development. Firstly, it is too firmly rooted in anthropocentrism, which is supported by the religion, and by the traditional European philosophy. Both make people think more about heaven than about the Earth. Thus, people are focused more on the soul than on the body; they are caring more for the favor of God than for their environment. Secondly, the ideology of consumptionism transforms people into wasters who increasingly over-exploit the Earth’s resources. Thirdly, people – the social masses and the ruling elites – intensely stupefied, are not driven by reason or intellect. That is why, there is little hope that the degradation of environment will be stopped and future generations will be given the chance to survive as a result of the impleme...

2019

The Doctrine of sustainable development requires every generation of human beings to utilize natural resources in a way that while human needs are satisfied, the resources necessary for future generations are not damaged. This new doctrine, which has turned into the optimal global model of development, provides the concept of development with a new meaning and a different scope: apart from the economic aspect, development acquires both social and environmental dimensions. Thus, optimal development would be a balanced economic, social and environmental development. In this model, protecting the environment not only has an essential value, but is also vital and undeniable in the development of any given society, because any serious damage to the environment and natural resources subsequently affects the economy of a society adversely. In fact, the close interaction between economic development

2015

The authors of this study claim, that constantly sustainable development threatens the ever deteriorating environment. The level of air, water and land pollution is highly alarming. In addition, global warming as a serious menace is manifested by extreme climate changes in the last years. Many distinguished scientists have been exhorting specialists to solve this problem and there were numbers of political statements. Kyoto Protocol from 1997 is considered to be the most significant international political document concerning lowering the carbon emissions. Its validity has been extended by 2020 at Doha conference (2012). Major problem of both conferences has been the fact, that the USA and China, the largest polluters in the world didnt sign the treaties. The authors point out, that the problem of a sustainable development is an ethical one in the context of ecology. Besides the above mentioned political failures, there is a globalizing and collective mentality of western society th...

Would the severe problems caused by global warming, this environmental crisis that humanity has to face, be solved through the reduction of atmospheric greenhouse gases? Would climate change mitigation and implementation of adaptation measures solve the problem? In fact, it begins with the premise – since it starts from a trigger fact- that the climate change currently configured in the world has anthropogenic and non-natural causes. This essay argues that the core problem is not high rate of greenhouse gas emissions. The underlying problem is not either the increasing vulnerability of mankind and human society to climate change, which would be solved by developing adaptive capacities in the affected population and regions.

Academia Letters, 2021

2021

Different forms of inequality, resulting from anthropogenic environmental changes, constitute a large part of the environmental problems. Environmental benefits and harms are not distributed equally across and within national boundaries. Such benefits and harms are unevenly distributed within and between generations. The environmental harms are caused by our current practices and will afflict our future generations, while benefits are enjoyed by the present generations alone. The concepts of “sustainability” and “sustainable development” have been developed to address such problems of inter-generational equality. The concept of sustainability began its career in the context of sustainable agriculture and sustainable ecological system. Any account of sustainability must answer questions about what should be sustained, for whom it is to be sustained and why. In the mainstream economic literature, the answer to the first questions is a certain level of human welfare which is understood...

In this essay, I would like to show that while criticizing anthropocentric point of view in his essay, Rajni Kothari shows another example of anthropocentric point of view. (1) Arguments on Development and Sustainability Kothari's argument on what kind of development should be embraced has enlighten the debate from the year 1990 when the paper had published. To begin with, his idea on developing a new ethical imperative instead of avoiding the environmental issues by arguing in favor of technological fix must be underlined. The historical development in the last 28 years, the day paper released till now has shown that without a prior ethical shift, it is not working. While it is not included the article, monetary aspect of the so-called climate programs must be named here. Each year, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gathering two times to discuss about the global solution about the climate change and related environmental issues. Mostly, the discussions are monetary related, how will the funds transfer from the global north to south will be managed. (2) Sustainability is the fashionable word of the millennia in the business world. In corporate sense it means that the administrative ranks of the corporation would survive without depending on any person. In economical sense, sustainable growth is generally defined as the continuous trend of the monetary ends. In most cases, the environmental sustainability is an anthropocentric term: The continuous, reliable exploitation of the natural resources without finishing those and not causing an industrial crisis by the lack of them. Kothari, on the other hand, suggest that the environment should not be sustained because of the potential exploitation value but its own value itself. Trees shouldn't be preserved to turn into paper later but to keep its natural rights as it is. Starting from " The Causes of World Crisis " part of the article, Kothari argues that contemporary human condition is one of the deepening crises. This view must be refuted before going further and the conclusion. Human history is full of crisis and historical texts shows that people who lived then took those seriously. Accordingly, research has shown that the black plague crisis was because of the climate shift happened in China, which leads the genetic mutations and

2015

Abstract: This article is purported to explore the ethical dimensions of environmental sustainability which has certain philosophical issues. It is argued in the paper that the philosophical import and the ethical grounding for environmental sustainability is based on the conception of nature as an environment rather than that of nature as a mere object for sustenance. Such conception of nature implies the concept of sustainability as a positive value in the society. In the case of nature as environment, nature becomes the natural habitat of man and is always supportive of human existence. The second issue that concerns the present paper pertains to ethical sustainability of environment, which is based on the ethical commitments of average people if adequate environmental protection is to occur. As such, environmental ethics is concerned with the issue of responsible personal conduct with respect to sustainability of natural resources. The ethical issue at present is the recovery of...

NAEC series, 2020

The severity of environmental problems and their socio-economic effects are important research issues as pollution and damages are local or global externalities implying market failures when in most of the cases the sources of pollution do not consider the full cost (including the related social costs) caused to others by their actions. Managing the various environmental problems and their associated implications is of interest to decision makers. Estimates of damage costs and a variety of other issues connected to changes in environmental quality and having to do with the importance of uncertainty and risk aversion are essential issues open to discussion. Furthermore, setting up competent policies requires cautious consideration of each source of pollution. For this reason, various features in the use of sufficient policies to cope with the various environmental problems, like people's awareness of environmental use and non-use values, institutional frameworks and similar concerns have to be considered. Policies to handle pollution and the related degradation have to take into account both the specific economic conditions as well as the structure of the associated sectors of each region.

Review of Professional Management- A Journal of New Delhi Institute of Management, 2009

The green cover is rapidly shrinking on Planet Earth. The climate is changing and varieties of environmental problems are now affecting our entire world. As globalization continues and the earth's natural processes transform local problems into international issues, few societies are being left untouched by major environmental problems. Well, today, humans have to combat many such manmade effects that have harmed the Mother Nature in many ways over the years. Alarming climatic changes, deforestation, destruction of habitat and extinction of species, rising pollution levels are only some of the current environmental issues we are faced with today. It becomes the duty of all to solve this global and substantial problem with unique and bizarre solutions. The solutions must come on broad, cultural, bioregional, even global levels, as well as on individual and local levels. The paper is a modest attempt to highlight some of the issues like sustainable development and carbon credits in specific and Environment in General.