Anthropocentric Argument Analysis

This paper will begin with an exposition of the article, “Radical Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique” written by Ramachendra Guha, a sociologist and historian involved in ecological conflict in the East and the West. In this article, he refers to American environmentalism as “deep ecology”, a modern theory founded by Arne Naess. Guha’s argues that based on a comparison of the concepts of deep ecology and other cultural environmentalisms, deep ecology is strictly rooted in American culture and thus, leads to negative social consequences when it is applied to the Third World. This argument will be achieved by first defining deep ecology and its principles.

Aldo Leopold laid the foundation for environmental awareness decades ahead of a “ecological conscience” (257). There have many pleas to reconnect humanity with nature since the release of Leopold’s cherished book. Intuition and reason tell us that living in harmony with our world is more than idealistic—the future of our planet depends on it. The desire for harmony is not new one. Humans have long time sought to live in peace. It is genuine feelings of love and

Even though we separated ourselves from nature in the attempt to salvage some beauty in the world we still “began to alter places where we were not,” through by-products of our industrialized society. (Mckibben XX) Mckibben says “it is also true that we are apart of nature” (Mckibben XXI) while Cronon wants us to see that “wilderness is more a state of mind than a fact of nature.” (Cronon 493) While Cronon wants humans to separate themselves from the wild, Mckibben asks us to confront nature head on. We are apart of it and“we possess the possibility of self-restraint” so we still have the means to stop abusing the natural order. In order to do this “we would need to change the ways we move ourselves around, the spaces we live in, the jobs we perform.” (Mckibben XXII) We can start by thinking of practical ways to affect the environment positively, starting in the

The environment can be described as all those elements, both the living and the non-living that surrounds us. The environment can also refer to the condition within which individuals, animals and plants lives. Mankind has a role to play in the environment, which mainly concerns taking care of the environment as well as improving it. Since, we as human beings are different from animals as we have a gift consciousness, we have an obligation of being improvers of the environment through ensuring that we observe environmental consciousness and that we avoid all those practices that negatively affects the environment and cause ecological crisis and problems. This essay will use the article “Towards a Buddhist Environmental Ethics” by Rita M Gross to help in the answering of the question “What is our appropriate role in relation the environment?” The essay will additionally look into the concept of ‘deep ecology’ by Bill Devall and George Sessions to get a deeper understanding of the ecology and our relationship with it, a concept that will help us to be in a better position to answer our appropriate role concerning the environment.

In The World’s Religions Book, William A. Young describes two poignant ecological approaches. These two similar approaches are the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism approach. Theravada Buddhism relies on “The Middle Way” for guidance for how individuals should assist in Earth’s ecological issues. “The Middle Way” proclaims the importance of the individual’s responsibility to “balance consumption” and “reproduction”. In a world where individuals abide by these guidelines will ultimately result in a world where “all can be adequately cared for materially, emotionally, and spiritually” (313).

As time goes by and also with some small punishments from the nature, humans start to be more kind to the nature. Humans and animals are both creatures live in this ecosystem. Humans are also at the top of the food chain, so humans have the duty to protect our environment. As the Dalai Lama argues, “I feel the time is ripe to engage with the ethical side of genetic revolution in a manner that transcends the doctrinal standpoints of individual religions.”(138) In the past years, humans have used too much resources from the nature. Since the resources are plenty, humans do not consider asking resources from the nature without temperance is a big problem. Our nature is the smartest existence in this world. Thus, before the nature gives humans terrible punishments. It is the time for human to consider the feeling of the nature. Humans need not to continue to break the balance of nature. However, the problem of ethical is too complex. Humans always struggle between what the public advocated and what is the better choice for animals. Just like the story in Herzog’s essay, Jim released his bird: “But then he sheepishly added ‘I knew she wouldn’t survive, that she probably starved. I guess I was doing it for myself more than for her’”(243) Humans start to know that they need to be more moral. However, this

Aldo Leopold was considered by many the father of wildlife, and cared for the wilderness system throughout the United States. In “Ecocentrism: The Land Ethic”, Leopold expresses the significance of humans as members of a larger ecological community. He states, “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts . . . The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” Leopold claims that “The Land Ethic” is about how people should have a deep, harmonious bond with Earth, instead of using it for our selfish, utilitarian purposes.

The earth is just combination of uniqueness and also it is comprised of perfect mechanism. Every individual creation or place is in sync but it is weak and it can easily be destroyed as long as one part is extinct. In nowadays, there are only few lands remained untouched, however, one of them is Mongolian territory. Therefore, it has been truly becoming comfort and safe environment for wild animals and plants, especially for rare species. Although last few decades, all these creation of natures are close to extinct because they are threatened by deforestation. This human acts doesn’t follow Taylor’s 4 duties which we have to other living beings (Non-Maleficence, Non-Interference, Fidelity, Restitutive Justice). Thus if we won’t seriously pay attention of it, it is so close to bring us death.

Baxter says that the elimination of waste will bring about greater human satisfaction. Thirdly, he says, “every human being should be regarded as an end rather than as a means to be used for the betterment of another” (Baxter 520). The fourth goal is that every person’s opinion in the community should have equal weight concerning how evenly and fairly the rules are applied. Also, every human should both be encouraged and given the opportunity to improve his or her state of being. He explains that the criteria by which we induce these elements of optimality must first be people oriented. As stated before, most humans make decisions based upon our ego-centric tendencies. Baxter explains, “no other position corresponds to the way most people really think and act-i.e., corresponds to reality” (520). Sadly enough for those of us who care for animals or the environment merely for their own sake, this is true.

The decline of the environment due to natural and human exertion is known as the degradation of the environment. The natural weather occurrences such as heavy rain, flooding, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes etc. are not administered under human control. These meteorological phenomenon’s wreak devastation on the environment from time to time causing the land to become unsuitable to cultivate. On this subject matter, the human population does not contain the power to stop the wrath of Mother Nature. Rather, we are forced to sit back and watch. Nevertheless, humans engage in a crucial role towards the degradation of the environment in which we live in. Unavoidably, the degradation of the environment is a rising and utmost worldwide subject. I accept that the root cause to environmental degradation is the excessive use of resources on our land utilized by the processes under capitalism. As Jensen wrote in Endgame, “The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human and (nonhuman) impoverishment.

Since the birth of human civilization, mankind has always been playing a competitive game with mother nature. The relentless pursuit of his progress, security, and comfort has resulted in an increase of stress on mother nature. It all began in the year of 1760. What we call the industrial revolution was a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with their environment. The revolution drastically changed every aspect of human life and lifestyles. Human development, health, and life longevity to social improvements and the impact on natural resources, the effects were becoming more evident every year. The industrial revolution wasn’t something that was made up overnight, some would say it was started the moment machinery was replacing manual labor. Fossil fuels were to replace the role of wind, water, and food for a more inexpensive, efficient strategy for performing the same tasks. What some didn’t know or even ignore about this substitution was that it could be extremely detrimental to both mother nature and human health. The full impact would not begin to be realized until about one hundred years later. Consequently, the life sustaining environment has been forced to transform more rapidly than it ever has before. The tendency humans have to exert a negative influence on ecology has resulted in a rapid increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, large deforestation, loss of biodiversity, severe land degradation, and environmental pollution.

Earth provides life to all living beings and asks for very little in return. Earth gives fiery, red sunrises to help greet the new day and briny oceans of blue that extends as far as the eye can see. How does humanity repay the planet for such gifts? By degrading it. By poisoning it. By wounding it, and by depleting it of its resources that were never anybody's to own, but merely to borrow. Consumerism, industrialism, materialism, and a lack of understanding are the driving forces of this relentless abuse directed at Earth. Even Earth, with its resilience and strength, can only endure so much abuse and exploitation before it decides "enough is enough". Even Earth has a breaking point, and this breaking point has lead humanity into the harrowing reality that is called global warming. In 2017, Global warming is a widespread topic. It is frequently mentioned in daily news broadcasts all around the world and has been the subject of countless studies and articles from decades ago to modern day. This paper will discuss some of the main underlying causes of this environmental crisis; deforestation, animal agriculture, and fossil fuels.

We as a society have reached one of the most crucial time periods in the history of our world. Due to the way we have used the resources on this earth we have created a situation in which our climate is drastically changing. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil has caused gases like carbon dioxide to become trapped in the atmosphere causing a natural greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect has caused the earth’s average temperature to rise and has resulted in arctic glaciers melting. These glaciers had gases trapped inside them that are now being released into the atmosphere further raising the earth's temperature. Due to the way we are polluting our air we have caused global warming. This global warming has caused stronger natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires putting our society in more danger than ever before.

According to Adger (2010), the combined effect of climate change and limitations of resources is serving as a threat to the sustainability of the current social-economic systems and is poised to affect our way of life. Climatic change is more than global warming. The rise in temperatures is but part of the broader changes leading to extreme temperatures, drought, flooding, storms, rising sea levels, impacts on food production and a range of infectious diseases. Despite the awareness of the situation by the scientific community, it has been slow to react and implement measures to mitigate their effects. According to the club of Rome, the limited resources of the earth cannot support the earth’s exponential growth, due to the slow renewal. It estimates that we are currently using 50% more resources than the sustainable level, with a current projected population of above 8 billion to the sustainable one. Global warming and climate change is accelerating the issue, through reduction of the agricultural production and will effectively lead to physical damage that may lead to catastrophic effects like extreme weather patterns and sea level rise Adger (2010).

The unprecedented upheavals in the environment in the last few decades cannot escape anyone's notice. Widespread and increasing global pollution, natural disasters of unusual intensities in more and more places, new and deadlier diseases, disappearance of animal and plant species, and disturbing signs even in the skies are among these. Seven serious observers publish respective opinions on the nature of these threats and recommend solutions. From their pronouncement, a common thread can be gleaned. Survival of earthly life today largely depends on science and technology.