200 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
ecosystems, but in some cases the very habitability of the globe. We have to recognize that
each of us is individually responsible for the quality of the environment we live in and that
our personal actions affect environmental quality, for better or worse. Our environmental
ethics must begin to express itself not only in national laws, but also in subtle but profound
changes in the ways we all live our daily lives. It appears that many individuals want the
environment cleaned up, but they do not want to make major life-style changes to make that
happen.
Global Environmental Ethics
This new sense of urgency and common cause about the environment is leading to
unprecedented cooperation in some areas. Ecological degradation in any nation almost
inevitably impinges on the quality of life in others. For years, acid rain has been a major
irritant in relations between the United States and Canada.
Conclusion
Will the nations of the world be able to put aside their political differences to work
towards a global environmental course of action? Out of that international conference was
born the U.N. Environment Programme a separate department of the United Nations that
deals with environmental issues. Through organizations such as this nations can work
together to solve common environmental problems. Deep ecologists, on the other hand, see
humankind itself as the main problem. They believe that the earth is a complex organism
with its own needs, metabolism; and immune system and that humankind’s relationship
with the earth is increasingly parasitic. In the book Deep Ecology: Living Nature. As If
Nature Mattered, proponents Bill Devall and George Sessions, clearly state their principles:
(1) Humans have no right to reduce the richness and diversity of life except to satisfy vital
needs: (2) the quality of human life and culture is compatible with a substantial decrease
in the human population; and (3) the flourishing of non-human life requires such a decrease.
To secure for current and future generations a safe and healthy environment, a sound
and prosperous economy should aim at:
- Ensure that citizens today and tomorrow have the clean air water, and land essential
to sustaining human health and the environment. - Protect and enhance, the quality of water resources and promote the wise and
efficient use of water. - Maintain and enhance the health and diversity of the wildlife and planets.
- Develop an environmentally literate society.
Climate Change
Introduction
The recent interest in global warming and sustainable development has become a
global talk. The most important global environmental topics as chosen by a panel of about
12 world experts were as follows: human population growth, bio-diversity and conservation,
climate change, forest decline, hazardous wastes, land degradation, human pathogens, urban
environment, work environment and resource depletion. Man is as closely related to nature
as he is to himself, because he is a part of it. An outright dependence on nature has been
a striking feature of man’s progress through the centuries of his struggle.