Environmental ethics
Environmental ethics is the part of environmental philosophy which considers extending the traditional boundaries of ethics from solely including humans to including the non-human world. It exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography. There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the environment.
For example:
- Should we continue to clear cut forests for the sake of human consumption?
- Why should we continue to propagate our species, and life itself?
- Should we continue to make gasoline powered vehicles?
- What environmental obligations do we need to keep for future generations?
- Is it right for humans to knowingly cause the extinction of a species for the convenience of humanity?
- How should we best use and conserve the space environment to secure and expand life?
Definition on Environmental Ethics
Environmental ethics refers to the moral relations between human beings and their natural environment. More specifically, it refers to the value that mankind places on protecting, conserving, and efficiently using resources that the earth provides. It is a standard that we use to view issues pertaining to the environment. Some people may have varying degrees of consciousness in this area, but everyone has an environmental ethic that they hold to. The key is to balance an awareness and motivation for environmental issues while not neglecting the needs of people.
Environmental ethics, then, might include such issues as the following:
- Why care about nature "for itself" when only people "matter"? If you deny that "only people matter," on what grounds can you defend that denial? (After all, if no people are around to regret it, what difference does it make if a species, a canyon, or even a planet is destroyed? If people who are around prefer to destroy natural objects and landscapes, then so what? Why not?
- When species or landscapes or wilderness areas are destroyed, what, of value, is lost to mankind?
- Will future generations "miss" what we have "taken from them"? (How could they if they never will know what they have "lost"?)
- "Should Trees Have [Legal] Standing?" (as Christopher Stone contends). On what grounds, if not for mankind's sake?
- Does "land ownership" make moral sense, or is it a morally absurd and repugnant concept in Western culture (as the native Americans would claim).
- Do human beings have a need for nature that implies an obligation to preserve it? What is the evidence for this?
- What are the ultimate grounds of an affirmation to protect the environment? Are they rational? Irrational? Non rational? Mystical?
- What, basically, is wrong with the developer's anthropocentric and utilitarian land ethic? Why not treat land as a "commodity" rather than a "community"?
- If five-hundred backpackers and river runners per year enjoyed Glen Canyon before 1962, and fifty thousand power boaters and water skiers enjoy it now, then why not have a Lake Powell there?
- Do future generations (who, after all, do not exist now) have a "right" now to a clean and natural environment when their time comes?
- Can man "improve" upon nature? How? What constitutes "improvement"?
- Do the facts of environmental science have moral implications?
Environmental laws
In the Constitution of India, it is clearly stated that it is the duty of the state to ‘protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country’. It imposes a duty on every citizen ‘to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife’. Reference to the environment has also been made in the Directive Principles of State Policy as well as the Fundamental Rights. The Department of Environment was established in India in 1980 to ensure a healthy environment for the country. This later became the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1985. The constitutional provisions are backed by a number of laws – acts, rules, and notifications. The EPA (Environment Protection Act), 1986 came into force soon after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and is considered an umbrella legislation as it fills many gaps in the existing laws. Thereafter a large number of laws came into existence as the problems began arising, for example, Handling and Management of Hazardous Waste Rules in 1989.
Following is a list of the environmental legislations that have come into effect:
1. General
- 1986 - The Environment (Protection) Act authorizes the central government to protect and improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all sources, and prohibit or restrict the setting and /or operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds.
- 1991 - The Public Liability Insurance Act and Rules and Amendment, 1992 was drawn up to provide for public liability insurance for the purpose of providing immediate relief to the persons affected by accident while handling any hazardous substance.
- 1995 - The National Environmental Tribunal Act has been created to award compensation for damages to persons, property, and the environment arising from any activity involving hazardous substances.
- 2002 - The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) (Amendment) Rules lay down such terms and conditions as are necessary to reduce noise pollution, permit use of loud speakers or public address systems during night hours (between 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight) on or during any cultural or religious festive occasion
2. Forest and wildlife
- 1927 - The Indian Forest Act and Amendment, 1984, is one of the many surviving colonial statutes. It was enacted to ‘consolidate the law related to forest, the transit of forest produce, and the duty leviable on timber and other forest produce’.
- 1972 - The Wildlife Protection Act, Rules 1973 and Amendment 1991 provides for the protection of birds and animals and for all matters that are connected to it whether it be their habitat or the waterhole or the forests that sustain them.
- 1980 - The Forest (Conservation) Act and Rules, 1981, provides for the protection of and the conservation of the forests.
3. Water
- 1956 - The River Boards Act enables the states to enroll the central government in setting up an Advisory River Board to resolve issues in inter-state cooperation.
- 1970 - The Merchant Shipping Act aims to deal with waste arising from ships along the coastal areas within a specified radius.
- 1974 - The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act establishes an institutional structure for preventing and abating water pollution. It establishes standards for water quality and effluent. Polluting industries must seek permission to discharge waste into effluent bodies. The CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) was constituted under this act.
- 1991 - The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification puts regulations on various activities, including construction, are regulated. It gives some protection to the backwaters and estuaries.
4. Air
- 1981 - The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act provides for the control and abatement of air pollution. It entrusts the power of enforcing this act to the CPCB.
- 1982 - The Atomic Energy Act deals with the radioactive waste.
- 1987 - The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act empowers the central and state pollution control boards to meet with grave emergencies of air pollution.
- 1988 - The Motor Vehicles Act states that all hazardous waste is to be properly packaged, labelled, and transported.
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