Our environmental circumstances pose problems of value and choice for each of us and challenge us to reconsider the way we act individually and collectively in an ever changing ecosystem. Whether we like it or not there is no escaping the fact that ethical values are imbedded in the premises and assumptions of all decisions we make concerning land, air, water and how use or abuse those resources.
Responsible resource management has come to include concern for land as habitat not just for humankind alone, but for other communities of species that inhabit it as well. In addition, we have come to understand that managing the air we breathe and the water we drink; needs to reflect an understanding of the overall impact in its ecological context. We must consider resource use or abuse as it relates too local impact and or larger significance in the hydrological cycle, the carbon cycle, public health, etc.
United States
United States
English: The CERN datacenter with World Wide Web a...This course has made me reflect upon the problems confronting those who have to make decisions about land, air, and water management and use. This course has furthered my understanding of the different approaches to environmental ethics and examination of the underlying assumptions of scientific, managerial, economic, aesthetic, political, judicial, and public policy discourse on the environment.
My values and ethics regarding the environment where of course fostered and molded in the early years of my life by the way I was raised by my parents. I was raised with the belief that ethics where about choosing the morally right thing when faced with the issues of religion, education, interpersonal relations, discrimination and tolerance and pride in our nation. It is somewhat ironic that I was raised on cattle ranch dependent on the environment to raise our crops and cattle, and yet there was no emphasis...