306
THE TIME HAS COME
FOR SCIENCE TO BUSY
ITSELF WITH THE
EARTH ITSELF
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
A
t its heart, the discipline
of environmental ethics
extends the boundaries
of ethics beyond humans, and into
the natural world. It forces humans
to question their role in the
environment, their responsibility to
the planet itself, and their duty to
future generations.
The field of environmental
ethics grew out of an urgent sense
of encroaching crisis, expressed
in both popular and academic
writings. In 1962, the book Silent
Spring, written by US biologist and
conservationist Rachel Carson,documented the serious impact
of pesticides on the environment,
and brought these issues to the
forefront of American public debate.
Six years later, US ecologist Garett
Hardin’s article “The Tragedy of the
Commons” outlined the danger of
overusing shared resources and
allowing the human population
to grow unchecked.
Other writers viewed the
impending crisis from a more
philosophical perspective. Aldo
Leopold’s “land ethic,” outlined in
A Sand County Almanac (1949),
placed human beings on an equal
footing with other species in a
wider ecosystem. As one part of a
larger whole, our ethical concerns
should be with the healthy
functioning of the entire ecosystem,
rather than simply the advancement
of human health and happiness.
In his seminal 1966 lecture
“The Historical Roots of Our
Ecologic Crisis,” later published
as an article, the US historian
Lynn White claimed that the
environmental crisis was the fault
of Western society’s worldview.
In particular, he blamed the
Christian thinking that promoted
anthropocentrism—the idea that
humans are superior to all otherIN CONTEXT
KEY FIGURE
Aldo Leopold (1887–1948)BEFORE
1894 In The Mountains of
California, Scottish–American
naturalist John Muir describes
his travels through wild places
in California, evoking the deep
spirituality and adventure he
feels when in the wilderness.1909 Gifford Pinchot’s The
ABC of Conservation argues
that future generations should
be able to utilize Earth’s
natural resources.AFTER
1968 US academic Paul R.
Erlich and his wife, Anne,
publish The Population Bomb,
warning of the dangers of
human population growth.1970 On April 22, the first
Earth Day is celebrated in the
US. It becomes an annual
global celebration of
environmental education
and reform.A thing is right when
it tends to preserve the
i nt e g r it y, s t a bi l it y, a nd
beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong
when it tends otherwise.
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