Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Environmental Worldviews
Planetary Management
Stewardship
Environmental Wisdom
•We are apart from the rest of
nature and can manage nature
to meet our increasing needs
and wants.
•We have an ethical responsibility
to be caring managers, or
stewards, of the earth.
•We are a part of and totally
dependent on nature and nature
exists for all species.
•We will probably not run out of
resources, but they should not
be wasted.
• Resources are limited, should not
be wasted, and are not all for us.
• Because of our ingenuity and
technology we will not run out
of resources.
•We should encourage earth-
sustaining forms of economic
growth and discourage earth-
degrading forms.
•We should encourage
environmentally beneficial forms
of economic growth and
discourage environmentally
harmful forms.
• The potential for economic
growth is essentially unlimited.
• Our success depends on how
well we manage the earth's life-
support systems mostly for our
benefit.
• Our success depends on learning
how nature sustains itself and
integrating such lessons from
nature into the ways we think
• Our success depends on how
well we manage the earth's life-
support systems for our benefit
and for the rest of nature.
Figure 18-21
Comparison of three environmental worldviews.
\
to this worldview, humans are the planet's most im-
portant and dominant species, and we can and should
manage the earth mostly for our own benefit. Other
species and parts of nature are seen as having
instru-
mental value
based on how useful they are to us. Ac-
cording to environmental leader Gus Speth, “This
view of the world—that nature belongs to us rather
than we to nature—is powerful and pervasive, and it
has led to much mischief.” Figure 18-21 (left) summa-
rizes the four major beliefs or assumptions of one ver-
sion of this worldview.
Another increasingly popular human-centered en-
vironmental worldview is the
stewardship world-
view.
It assumes that we have an ethical responsibility
to be caring and responsible managers, or
stewards,
of
the earth. Figure 18-21 (center) summarizes the major
beliefs of this worldview.
According to the stewardship view, when we use
the earth's natural capital we are borrowing from the
earth and from future generations, and we have an
ethical responsibility to pay the debt by leaving the
earth in at least as good a condition as we now enjoy.
Some analysts believe we should consider the wis-
dom of the 18th-century Iroquois Confederation of
Native Americans:
In our every deliberation, we must
consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven
generations.
Life-Centered Environmental Worldviews
Some believe that we have an ethical responsibility
not to degrade the earth's ecosystems, biodiversity,
and biosphere for all forms of life.
Some people believe any human-centered worldview
will eventually fail because it wrongly assumes we
now have or can gain enough knowledge to become
effective managers or stewards of the earth. These crit-
ics point out that we do not know how many species
live on the earth, much less what their roles are and
how they interact with one another and their non-
living environment. We have only an inkling of what
goes on in a handful of soil, a meadow, or any other
part of the earth.
These critics believe that human-centered envi-
ronmental worldviews should be expanded to recog-
nize the
inherent
or
intrinsic value
of all forms of life,
regardless of their potential or actual use to humans.
Most people with such a life-centered worldview be-
lieve we have an ethical responsibility to avoid caus-
ing the premature extinction of species through our
activities for three reasons.
First,
each species is a
unique storehouse of genetic information that should
be respected and protected simply because it exists
(in-
trinsic value). Second,
each species is a potential eco-
nomic good for human use (
instrumental value
).
Third,
