My Environmental Ethic By Theodore Roosevelt

More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will warm the planet, and more of it in the ocean will acidify the ocean, making it uninhabitable to a growing number of marine species. Factory farms are destroying forests in order to grow more food and make more money.

And with the earth warming up the ice caps melt this can lead to flooding which means less land. Less land means fewer animals and places to grow crops. This means less food for us and over all has a domino affect.

Many people do not live ecofriendly lives or find protecting the environment to be important.

“We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in”- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (251)

Have you ever thought about how your actions or opinions affected the environment around you? We’re constantly unaware of what we do that impacts the environment’s condition. One author named Wendell Berry blames the public in his article regarding the way society and the industry has treated the environment and its natural resources. This raises concerns whether we should be putting more importance on the economy or the land that we live in for the sake of our future survival. While I agree with most of Berry’s points and perspectives I slightly disagree with a few of his opinions, but nonetheless he brings up a great matter in today’s modern society.

To keep our environment healthy, all these element need to work together. There are no global laws protecting the environment and that is why everyone should practice good ethics when it comes to the environment. Environmental ethics is the part of environment philosophy which considers extending the traditional boundaries of ethics from only including hum and to non-humans. There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the environment. Humans are been considered of rational agents because they have clear preference, models uncertainty via expected values, and always to perform the action with the optimal expected outcome of itself. The action of the rational agent performs depends on the

The world is consuming more than it can produce. In order to produce the amount that we use, requires a lot of waste to be made. Industrial production produces industrial waste. With the amount of waste being produced it is effecting the environment, especially the water and food supply. Everyone is a polluter and everyone abuses the environment.

I have always been fond of the West African proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” Theodore Roosevelt

While attending the convocation festival today we were open to the opportunity to be enlightened by Jay Erzkine Leutze, author of Stand Up That Mountain. While he spoke I was not enlightened about items in the novel, however I was enlightened by his views on values. His views on what values make a person better. He spoke about his belief that if someone wanted to be a good person they needed to focus on the environment. If someone treats he environment well and pursues the rest of their life and values surrounding the environment that person is able to do much good. I do agree with Mr. Leutze in this regard. If someone is willing to take care of the environment and the materials within their surrounding area then they are willing to care for the organisms and people living within that environment. Those people are able to plan ahead and focus on future generations and are less likely to be selfish individuals.

I believe that we need to think of the Earth as a gift and a home. We must take care of our Earth but our personal health must come before Earth’s. Lastly, our decision making should be guided by the Bible and my common sense. Our Earth is truly a gift and it is a good gift from God. Genesis 1:31 states, “God saw all that we made, and it was very good”. We need to change the way that we look at the Earth. Normally if we get a really nice gift we treasure it and do our best to protect it. This is the same mindset that we need to have about our land. Secondly, we do need to recognize that we have dominion over the Earth. God created us to take care of the Earth. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and then he created man to be stewards of it. It is important not to get to crazy and do things to harm the Earth but we must also remain healthy. Humans come before the land and they always should. Lastly, when living on Earth we must make good decisions. These decisions should be based on what our teachings tell us and our common sense. It is just common sense that cutting down a tree or throwing a wrapper out the yard will harm the Earth. This semester I have learned so much, and thought deeply about many topics. I know that the Earth is a gift and we are so blessed to have this beautiful creation to live in. The many field trips that we went on made me realize many things about our Earth that I didn’t realize. Specifically the wastewater treatment we went on made me realize how much waste we produce and it makes me feel like we are hurting our Earth. Too often people don’t think about the things that they are doing to our Earth. Psalm 8:6 states, “You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet”. The Bible states many times in context that we are to care for the Earth we have been

The world is being sickened by the needs of man in today's society. People, love to live in luxury without knowing the consequences of their actions. This is because man lives at a pace set by himself, and not one that is naturally set by nature. This is shown excellently in a quote inside of the novel Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The Quote states, “the rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature.” The Earth is experiencing such rapid and disastrous change due to the wants of man. Man demands too much from the earth and not only is this changing the Earth, but it is also depleting many non renewable resources

"Save the Planet," "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," "Go Green." Quotes like these have become a commonality in today's age. We all are familiar with the large efforts to help preserve the environment. In "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments," Thomas E. Hill Jr. sums up his essay by stating, "The point is not to insinuate that all anti-environmentalists are defective, but to see that those who value such traits as humility, gratitude, and sensitivity to others have reason to promote the love of nature" (688; par. 4) This excerpt provides the thesis behind Hill's argument. The author found that

We should promote the conservation of our ecologies by reducing the amount of waste that goes directly into the environment and promoting green thinking and living all across the world. For instance, we could protect our environment by reducing the amount of cattle that feed in a certain area and by prohibiting the introduction of alien-invasive species as they deplete minerals and food in the soil for other plants to consume.

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.

Since the Industrial Revolution, natural resources have been under increasing pressure. The significant changes in the amount of natural resources we have left have led to many issues, such as global public health and global development. Other areas affected include the loss of forest, water and air pollution, decrease in fresh water supply and degradation of soil. Today we are currently seeing dramatic increases in global population. As the world’s population continues to rise, natural resources will continue to dwindle as long as we remain the same. The one thing that I would say is the most challenging for humans is being able to advance in life, but still not destroy the environment. If you look at most developed countries, it is evident that they consume resources way more rapidly than developing countries. The problem with this is that all of these countries are consuming faster than they can produce. Places like Africa and Asia are experiencing population momentum. These areas have a tendency for population growth that continues to grow because of the high concentration of people having kids. Better living conditions are definitely needed in these countries because of the limited amount of resources being consumed by these regions. The over exploitation of these resources will eventually lead to problems for future uses.