A human induced global ecological crisis is occurring, threatening the stability of this earth and

Anthropocentrism describes a human-centered view of our relationship with the environment. An anthropocentric denies or ignores the notion that nonhuman entities can have rights. In contrast biocentrism ascribes value to certain living things or to the biotic realm in general. In this perpective human life and non human life both have ethical standing. Ecocentrism judges actions in terms of their effects on whole ecological systems, which consist of living and nonliving elements and the relationships among them.

Since the birth of humanity, humans have deeply relied on nature. From the food that is consumed to the water that is drunk, all of it was provided by nature. As time proceeds, humanity has grown proportionally with its expansion and consumption. It is believed by many that the tipping point at which nature can sustain humanity will be reached. The only way to help nature is the extinction of the leach that feed off it, which means the extinction of humanity. Human extinction is necessary for the survival of nature. With the constant energy usage, expansion (migration), and population growth, extinction is seen as the only way to help the environment and save what has given us life to begin with. With the growth of cities and conversion of forests to homes, nature has no way to help itself. Thus, being the only living creature consciously able to react on nature’s behalf, it is the responsibility of humanity to save nature.

There are two ways of thinking, on one hand, the ecologists who focus on environment and living being relationship in general and on the other hand the ones who focus on human beings and its relation with the environment.

The Anthropocene is an era increasingly defined as, current and beginning with homo sapiens becoming the dominant force upon Earth’s ecosystems, geology, and climate. Human activity has had and continues to have a measured effect, in major extinction events. Scientists believe this will increase in severity as a consequence of climate change (Thomas et al., 2004; Root et al., 2003). Minter (2012) discusses the traditional westernised desire humans have towards manipulating and controlling the environment. As humans strive to become ‘masters of nature’, we threaten the integrity of the organic systems we live off. Putting a low collective value on our ethical responsibilities with respect to our consumer behaviour could very well lay the flagstones on the path to our own extinction on this planet.

Anthropocentric differs from the biocentric view because it places humans first and biocentric places nature first. This could also include plants and animals depending on who is involved and what the situation is.

Instead of responding to God’s precious gifts that were given to us with faith, thanks and responsibility, most of these environmental problems are the result of human practices. This is the result of the different worldviews that people have. Worldviews determine our values and beliefs; help us to understand the world around us, and in general function works as a guide to life (Wright, 2003, p. 9). However, cultural and environmental conditioning tends to enslave us to ways of thinking and behaving, usually without us realizing it. While some view nature as being merely for men' use, others view nature as a consumable resource that we have been given, others as inexhaustible, others as something to use and replace, others as something to look at, but not to touch, others as a cosmic

Another approach is the “ecocentric perspective” of Mahayana Buddhism. Similar to Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism focuses on the relationship of all

Baxter criteria support the human right to exercise individual freedom, without impeding the freedom of others and advises against wasteful, excessive consumption. Its message resonates with Kant's philosophy by suggesting that "every human being should be regarded as an end rather than as a means," and encourages the development of the opportunities for the personal growth, echoing the prospect of the American dream. The anthropocentric approach emphasizes our obligation, as human beings to help others, who are suffering, curtails our personal consumerism, and highlights our responsibility to preserve and maintain global ecosystems for the benefit of the human kind. Perhaps, the notion that nature has no value in itself, but its value is measured by how it affects people could appear rather selfish and "male-dominant" to some people. Contrary, ecocentric ideas, which call to cut down on consumption and consumerism, indeed seem plausible at first glance, yet the further analysis of the practical approach to the fulfillment of those goals is troubling, to say the least. Guha precisely elaborates in explaining why these ecocentric beliefs result in outcomes, which hurt the most those, who they should have been designed to protect in the

This book is the story of an opportunistic approach to remedy and adapt to the drastic changes humanity has caused to the Earth while also embracing the role humans play in the Anthropogenic era. Humans will always continue to build environments, but the concern now is how are we going to build better environments. These issues will challenge humanity and question our values. How we build the environment around us in the future will be based on whether or not embracing the Anthropogenic era will indeed lead to a sustainable planet or just be a quick fix to the deeper issues of human behavior that have led us astray from maintaining a sustainable planet.

In the decade of the 1970s, the United Nations organized several important meetings on the human environment to study a very serious problem . We humans are destroying the world around us . We are using up all of our natural resources . We must learn to conserve them, or life will be very bad for our children and our grandchildren .

Environmental issues can be difficult to resolve. With many different sources and countless resulting effects, it can be a challenge to pinpoint the best solution to fix the issue. Once it has been brought to the attention of decision makers, one must choose a perspective from which they will analyze the problem. Will they look at it from an anthropocentric point of view, in which first & foremost, people’s interests are taken into account? Or will they analyze it from an ecocentric perspective in which the current state and developing future of the environment is the first priority? Once this has been decided, they must then choose who will manage the process of resolving the issue. This leads to my topic for this paper which will be discussed

“As societies wrap their collective minds around the consequences of global environmental change-rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, chronic water shortages, disappearing species-it may well be that a new ethic will emerge, one that says it is not only right and

We are taught about the relation of human beings with their environment from the early days of our schooling. But what we have achieved is failure in protecting our environment.We have not, as a species, come to grips with the explosive events that have changed our relationship with the planet. For most of human existence, we lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers whose impact on nature could be absorbed by the resilience of the biosphere. Even after the Agricultural Revolution 10,000

White’s thesis in The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis states that in order to confront the expanding environmental crises, humans must begin to analyze and alter their treatment and attitudes towards nature. The slow destruction of the environment derives from the Western scientific and technological advancements made since the Medieval time period. “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them” (RON p.7). Technology and science alone will not be able to save humans until we adjust the way of thinking and suppress the old ideas of humans power above nature. Instead, we need to learn how to think of ourselves as being

These perspectives are anthropocentric or human centered and view all non-human life as less important than humans themselves. Environmental ethics challenges these beliefs by questioning the assumed moral superiority of human beings to members of other species on earth (SEP, 2008). Preservation of the environment is essential to the preservation of the human race.