Deep Ecology

Deep Ecology represents our first encounter with a completely nonanthropocentric approach to justify equal moral standing to the whole of nature.  According to biocentric equality, intrinsic value resides among both humans and nonhuman species alike.  Individuals are challenged to find true reality and significance through self-awareness of ones proper place in the interrelated whole of nature.  The Deep Ecology ecophilosophy serves as a foundation for implementation of the “Platform” which envisions a harmonious world, or “ecotopia.”

For this blog, you will be assigned by name alphabetically to the sequence of five “Discussion Questions” in DesJardins’ Chapter 9.   Your task is to apply the Deep Ecology ethics to a particular issue and then comment on the implications in today’s world confronted with environmental problems.  Title your comment using a representative key word or phrase.

Applying Leopold’s Land Ethic

You are part of a fifth-generation family who have lived on the same land in Wisconsin since the 1800’s.  Because you most closely shared your father’s values toward this land, he had made you the fifth holder of the land trust to maintain this 100 acres of land.  The land includes a perimeter of about 40 acres of secondary forest that was selectively timbered in the 1940’s interspersed with some prairie and savannah communities; and, an inner core of old-growth forest, never timbered.  Your land is surrounded by a combination of agricultural and expanding residential land.  Your father had allowed neighbors limited hunting and cutting of firewood from fallen trees, but with increasing population moving in you are contemplating how best to manage your inheritance.  Based on completion of DesJardins’ Ch. 8, contribute your response to one of the following of your choice while avoiding redundancy if someone has already commented on it:

1.  Ecological considerations pertinent to deciding how to ethically care for your      inheritance.
2.  Your reaction to an ethical holism in which moral standing is based the “natural state” and “stability, complexity, health” of the land.
3.  Present the logic used by a neighbor who believes that you are an “environmental fascist.”
4.  Defend  your “Leopold land ethic” and the land trust concept when the neighbor in 3. uses a spray paint message: “fascist.”
5.   Explain how Callicott’s ethics might aid your use of the “land ethic” but also is vulnerable to criticism

Critique of the Land Ethic

Does Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic” contain the elements necessary to provide a description of ecosystems such that moral standing can then be extended to them in an objective manner.  Or, which ecological or other models give a correct view of ecosystems, and how does the presumably correct view then provide a basis for moving from descriptive (“what is”) to a normative claim (“what ought to be”)?

You have each been assigned to one of the following elements or issues of the “Land Ethic.”  Based on DesJardins’ exposition from pages 179-189, express your understanding of the concept or issue.  Remember the blog commenting guidelines (under “Students”):
a) What is the ecological conscience?
b) The land pyramid as picture of stability?
c) Land health means individuals must die?
d) Does an ecosystem have life?
e) From healthy ecosystem to an ethical norm?

Thinking Like a Mountain

In his powerful essay contained in A Sand County Almanac (Oxford, 1949) entitled “Thinking Like a Mountain”, Aldo Leopold described his conversion from one view of nature to an entirely different view. Devote a few minutes to read Leopold’s account recorded on pages 129-133 of A Sand County Almanac. Reflect on what he is saying. Then, respond with two or three sentences that address one of the following to add an additional insight not already included in any comments already posted:
a) Leopold’s view of nature before and after his “conversion”
b) What it means to “think like a mountain” in contrast to thinking otherwise.
c) How does/doesn’t the imagery of “a mountain” convey Leopold’s intent in the essay?
d) What environmental ethic (if any) is supported by this essay?
Remember, two or three sentences max!

Origins of the Environmental Crisis

In Chapter 2 of his book, The Environment and Christian Ethics, Michael Northcott states that “just as the environmental crisis is complex in its nature, so its causation is also complex and multifactorial.”   However, he proposes that “the roots of the crisis lie in a range of changes and social processes which together” foreshadow the emergence of “a form of human society known as modernity, in which the human relation to nature is radically transformed.”

The comments for this blog represent efforts by class members to express discussion points related to some of the factors contributing to modernity; namely the agricultural revolution, the commodification of nature, influence of science and technology, and how modernity and ecology are in conflict.

What Justifies Moral Standing for Animals?

The record of human history is dominated by the view that nonhuman life exists to serve human needs.   Even today, there are many “uses” of animals that are ethically questionable.  But, is this the way it is ought to be?  Your comments for this topic should help us in our progression from “what is” to what ought to be” with as much objectivity as your reading can offer.

Responsibilities to Future Generations

Many environmentalists point to issues such as rapid population growth, excessive consumption, climate change, ozone depletion, and loss of biodiversity as evidence that humans are destroying Earth’s biosphere and placing both current human life and the lives of future generations at risk.  In your response to your “Discussion Question,” identify the central issue of the question and then present your response based on your understanding of the ethical considerations presented in Chapter 4.

Ethics of “Environmental Economics”

In earlier blogs, you have raised the question, “How can the “value” of land or water resources be properly defined and then managed so that  human actions toward these resources is what it “ought” to be?

A utilitarian-based ethic calls for the use of free marked economics as a means of determining value and allocating resources so as to produce “the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.” This approach is the subject of DesJardins’ Chapter 3 and is applied in the “Discussion Questions.”   Your assigned question can be the  focus of your next comment (optional).  See instructions in the Lecture #7 assignment page.

Ethics for Technology: Gulf “Dead Zones”

Your comments for the “Science and Ethics” posting identified many of the scientific or ecological considerations related to the “dead zones” of the Gulf of Mexico.  Now define the concept of “technology” and “cost”, and and then try to frame your respective arguments in terms of one or more ethical theories you are encountering as they would guide decision-making.  Direct your emphasis along the lines of one of the three specific questions below raised from your prior comments:

1.      What is “technology” in general and in what way does it become a focus of ethics? (Brittany)

2.    How can you frame your respective arguments in relation to ethical theory?  (Jacob, Micah, Luke)

3.    How can “cost” of different approaches and intended outcomes be determined?  (Anna)

Science and Ethics

Based upon your understanding of the respective roles of science, economics, and ethics, select one aspect of the “hypoxia” (or “Dead Zone) problem in the Gulf of Mexico and explain briefly how it is an important consideration (among others of course) in any effort to properly address the problem.